The Girl who Imprinted
by CCRevival
Summary: The Volturi ran off with their tails between their legs, but a gathering that large of supernatural creatures attracted attention from the magical world. The magical world is still rebuilding from Voldemort so Harry gets sent. He finds trouble quickly with vampires - and an infatuated shape shifter.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any references to Stephanie Meyer's works. I do not own Harry Potter or any version of J.K. Rowling's works.

* * *

Chapter 1

On the whole, Harry was happy with his life. He still saw Ron and Hermione regularly, even if not as often now that they had a kid. He had just gotten promoted to Captain in the auror corps. The media had toned down and he was not as hounded as before. He realized, a bit late, that all he had to do was be a bit more public, and people would eventually get bored.

Before he had gotten a job as an auror, his whole life was extremely secret - and therefore mysterious. Before he had gone to Hogwarts, no one even knew where he lived. While he was at Hogwarts, not many people talked to him except for his two best friends. Ginny even agreed that how little he had interacted with anyone not named Ron or Hermione made him seem even more unapproachable, and that only added to how hard it was for her to talk to him. His whole life had been carefully managed by his headmaster, and while he did owe Albus Dumbledore his life, he couldn't deny that the older man had made a lot of mistakes with regards to Harry.

After the war, Harry had the time to fix a lot of things that were wrong in his life. While it wasn't that bad of an excuse, running around and saving the world year after year didn't completely excuse how badly he did in school. He went back with most of his classmates for seventh year at Hogwarts. Since the school was not in a very good way, the ministry used a pretty good idea that Harry had. All of the students that would be back for seventh year went two months earlier to fix the school. They would spend a couple of hours in the morning learning spells to fix the school and the rest of the day using them in practice. While they worked, the remaining few teachers went hunting to fill up the spots required in the staff. They managed to fill all positions except D.A.D.A. and Transfiguration. Transfiguration was temporarily fixed by having the headmistress McGonagall be both a teacher and headmistress until they found a replacement in Hermione Granger the next year.

The Defense position was filled by having the students from the D.A. teach a year each. The three upper years were taught by Neville, Hermione and Harry in 5th, 6th and 7th years respectively. That year there were no dangers to anyone's life and no plots to be discovered. At first Harry was seeing plots where there weren't, but everyone was patient with him and calmed him down. Eventually Harry realized that nothing was happening, and found himself with a lot more time than he usually had. With Ron and Hermione both spending the majority of their free time developing the early relationship and Ginny still a bit distant from him leaving her and her brother dying, Harry ended up reading a lot more. He still wanted to be an auror and decided to prepare himself more. After each new spell that he learned he saw that he could've used it in one of his adventures and save himself a lot of trouble. After each spell, he wanted to smack himself for not paying attention in school before.

While he knew he would probably never catch up to Hermione in terms of knowledge, he exceeded her in amounts of spells that he could cast. He saw that Hermione read a lot, but he barely ever saw her practicing spellwork. That was why he was always ahead of her in Defense.

After graduating from Hogwarts, he went on to be an auror, where the ministry had wanted him to skip his last year of Hogwarts to immediately join them. Hermione managed to talk him out of it, making him finish his education.

With his quick reflexes, his excellent spell work, his reputation and his recently found knowledge, he quickly got through auror training in record time of one year and then climbed up the auror ladder.

Right now he was standing outside the D.M.L.E.'s head's office. At twenty three years old, he was respected by most and usually given choice in the jobs he had to do. His team liked him, even if they sometimes complained about him taking the worst jobs. The trainees loved him for taking the more dangerous jobs, while the people that worked there during the war disliked him for making their jobs harder than they were used to, since the aurors were practically shut down when Voldemort took over the ministry.

His friends were not so happy with his choices. Most of them were ready for him to finally slow down so they could stop worrying about him. Harry tried once to slow down and take the easy jobs that were not a threat, but he found himself restless. It wasn't that he was an adrenaline junkie, he just didn't feel like he was doing anything worthwhile with his life. He felt like he was wasting his life away. His friends tried to explain to him that a job was just a job and that you still got meaning from your home life.

Harry's social life was not exactly what he wished for. He was still very happy hanging out with Ron and Hermione when they could, or even a few people from the D.A. He also very much liked spending time with his girlfriend Ginny Weasley. However, he didn't get as much satisfaction out of that relationship as he wished. The problems started when they casually started talking about family one day. "Oh no, I don't want to have children until at least thirty five," Ginny had laughed. Harry's spirits fell when he heard that. His biggest dream had always been a big family. He talked about his best friends about it and they advised that he couldn't expect that if they weren't even married yet. Harry had then been very excited to propose to his girlfriend. She, however, was not ready to be tied down like that yet. She explained that while she wouldn't ever want anyone else, marriage still scared her a bit, and that they should wait some. Harry accepted that as well as he could. They didn't fight about it, but their relationship wasn't as carefree as it used to be. He thought it was the pressure that he had put on her.

Harry sighed, he didn't like dwelling on that while he had to meet important people. He knocked on the door and was greeted inside by his superior, Amelia Bones.

"Auror Potter," was her greeting.

"Hullo Amelia," Harry replied a bit cheekily in response to her over formality.

She started off in her business voice. "We have a problem in the United States. We need someone to go over there. If you accept, you'll be going over there for a few months with one trainee auror. It's mostly a scouting mission, but you will have authority to do whatever you deem necessary."

Harry was definitely intrigued. Aurors almost never went out of the country. "Why are we getting this job? I've never heard of the I.C. letting aurors work in other countries without at least supervision, much less a license to kill."

"Well, this problem involves most of the countries in the I.C. and it affects the United States the most. They asked for help and most countries are still rebuilding from you-know-who's take over. They agreed that you were the most qualified to lead this mission. The trainee is basically for you to train, he's a new recruit that just joined. He's your age, so he has a lot to learn. We thought it'd be best if you had something to do during your free time there," Amelia explained in a monotone voice as if she had explained this a hundred times.

"Hmm. I think I get it, but this must be a hell of a threat for all of the I.C. to agree. What is it?" Harry asked a bit apprehensively.

Amelia answered the question with a question. "Have you ever heard of the Volturi?"

"The werewolf pack in France?" Harry guessed.

"The _vampire _coven in _Italy,_" Amelia said. "They're a very powerful and gifted group on vampires. You-know-who was said to have sent convoys to them, only for none of them to come back. I think he was planning to take them on after he had killed you."

"Alright but what does this have to do with the U.S.?" Harry questioned.

"I was getting to that." Amelia sighed. "A few weeks ago, they moved for the first time in centuries. They visited a city called Forks in the state of Washington to meet another coven there. We were alerted to it because there was a gathering of over a hundred vampires in a small area right outside the city. We found out all we could, but all we got was a lot of information about a coven there that apparently live off of animals instead of humans. It's all here in this file." She handed a thick booklet over to him. "It'd be better if you actually read the whole thing this time." She glared at him quickly with a small smile when he grinned cheekily back at her. "But Harry, this is an international mission, please don't make us look bad."

Harry nodded over the top of the files he was looking at. "Don't worry, I'll do my best."

"I know Harry, I'm counting on you. I'm also assuming that you're accepting," she got a nod at that, Amelia paused when there was a knock on the door. "Oh, that must be the trainee."

Amelia strode over to the door and opened it revealing the trainee. "Harry, you and trainee Malfoy here are going to be working together for the next few months."

Both Harry and Draco had the same reaction. "Fuck," they said simultaneously.

* * *

"So you're leaving. You're really leaving England," Hermione asked disbelievingly and with a bit of reproach.

"It's only for a few months," Harry said feebly.

"Only for a few months!" Hermione screeched.

Ron and Harry both winced but didn't put their hands on their ears. Mostly from fear of upsetting her more though.

"Hermione, please," Ron tried to soothe her, only to get a deadly glare from her in return. "He'll be just a floo call away remember? Plus, he'll contact us if he needs anything, right Harry?" Ron asked with a face that just begged him to agree.

"Of course. I'll even call and let you know everything I'm learning there."

Hermione's face lit up at that. They both should've known to appeal to her with this. "Oh! Be sure to tell me everything. Owl me and tell me everything. Especially about the Cullens. I think it's so interesting how compassionate they can be in spite of their condition," Hermione rambled. "Oh and I read the most interesting stories about tribes there..."

"Okay honey," Ron chuckled at her. "How about we say goodbye to Harry and let him go, hm?"

His newly wed, and most importantly, pregnant, wife did a complete turn around at that. "But Harry! Vampires! This is going to be extremely dangerous! Have you learned all the anti-vampiric wards in the book I gave you?" Hermione asked and then remembered what Ron said "and don't patronize me Ronald Weasley! I do _not_ appreciate that tone. You can_not_ just joke about our best friend leaving- and we won't be there to help him this time," Hermione sniffed "and we..." Here she broke down in tears. She wailed and clutched onto both Harry and Ron. By the time they managed to calm her down, she had hit them both in the arm, soaked their shirts in tears, and then wailed for raspberry chocolate.

Before he left, Hermione prepared him a small money pouch. He tried to tell her that he definitely had enough money. Especially after he found out how much Sirius left him, he had no need to work anymore. Hermione gave him a look that told him how slow she thought he was. "I prepared it with all the things that we had when we went horcrux hunting. I added a few things, but everything that we had when we went is either there, or replaced."

That was a bit extreme of her, Harry thought, but he was thankful nonetheless. If anything just to please her hormones, he gave her a hug and a thank you. She said she would go and take a bath after that, giving Harry a last hug and a kiss on the cheek goodbye.

Ron walked with him outside and gave him a parting remark. "I wish I could leave for a few months."

"I heard that Ronald!" They both heard Hermione screech from just on the other side of the door.

Harry looked at him with extreme sympathy. Well, not enough sympathy to stay though. He half smiled and promptly apparated out.

* * *

Harry and Draco arrived in the American ministry of magic later that night. They had learned that they would be sharing a house just outside the town. It was a heavily wooded area so they would have enough space to ward it properly.

"Malfoy, go to the portkey office and pay for this, while I go and get the information on the house."

Draco sighed. He disliked taking orders from Harry, but he knew he had no choice. Unless he had a very good excuse, like suspicions of Harry being on the Imperious Curse, being controlled, or being asked to kill someone, Draco had to obey his commanding officer. Outright refusal to follow an order was punishable by release from duty or worse depending on the case. While he knew that he wouldn't get fired for complaining, he didn't want to make it a habit and do it at the wrong time.

They quickly finished their business in the ministry and apparated to the coordinates given. They appeared in front of a two story teal house that looked quite new.

Before Draco could go in, Harry stopped him. "Malfoy, I have to ward the house. I think this is a good time to talk a bit about your training here."

Draco nodded. This made sense to him.

"I'm probably going to make the training fairly informal. I'll mostly give you lessons whenever I think of them. You've had organized lessons for more than a decade now. I think it's time to get you some training closer to what we're going to be doing." Harry was mostly winging it, but it sounded pretty good to him. While he was making lessons in his head, he was walking around the perimeter of the house. He was trying to figure out a good place to place ward stones, and he was on the look out for some so he didn't have to search them magically.

"The first thing I'm gonna check, is if you're paying attention. What is it we're here for?" Harry asked.

Draco huffed impatiently and rolled his eyes. This seemed pointless to him. "Fine, Potter. We're here because of the Vol-"

"WRONG!" Harry screamed over top of him, cutting off anything he was going to say. "You are _not_ paying attention. What is the first thing you should've done before saying anything you were about to say?"

Draco looked confused for a second before he cursed. He had forgotten to make sure they couldn't be overheard. He brought out his wand and cast a temporary silencing ward and used a charm to see if there were any living things within a fifty feet radius of them. Nothing bigger than a football showed up, so he decided it was safe.

Harry watched on approvingly. Once he finished putting up the wards there would be a permanent silencing ward around the property, but to do that he would be required to put a permanent charm on something. The best thing for that was precious stones. When a permanent charm was placed upon something, it was called an enchantment. Different materials were better for enchanting.

The rule was that inorganic things would leak magic less quickly than living things. If you were to enchant a muggle, the magic would last a few days at most. Enchanting a living wizard would last even less because their magic would fight against the enchantment. The curious thing was that as soon as the wizard (or magical creature) died, their magic would lose direction and become passive. That made enchantments actually last longer than non magicals. That is why the best enchanted clothing came from the hide of dragons, basilisks and the most magical creatures.

That's also why wizards made the best inferi.

In the case of inorganic materials, it became a lot more difficult. The logic behind it seemed a lot more erratic. Some metals made better receptacles while some stones were better. Regular stones would last a year or two at most. Gold around five years, while silver would last ten. Gems like rubies and emeralds would all last decades, sometimes centuries. Some argued that the cut of the gem mattered more, while others argued it was the quality of the enchantment that mattered most. For the most expensive and longest wards, diamonds were used. Diamonds, so far did not seem to have any leaks.

For a simple few month job, Harry decided to use regular stones. He wasn't the best enchanter, but he thought they would last at least the year.

He summoned the biggest stone that he could find and quickly cut it into equal pieces. He then turned to Draco and continued his lesson. "Alright. I know that you read the files, that wasn't the point of the question, as you probably figured out." Draco grunted in something close to affirmative. "We're here for vampires. With me here, chances are we'll meet the vampires sooner or later." Draco snorted but couldn't disagree. "So, I'm a vampire. I'm going to attack you now. Defend yourself."

Draco looked at him confusedly, but didn't move. Harry attacked quickly. One second Draco was looking at Harry, the next he was on his back getting choked.

"Po-t-r ge-fff," Draco choked out, turning blue.

Harry thought he'd made his point and slowly let go and got up.

"React faster," was all Harry said. He then got started setting up the silencing ward on the first stone. He came up with his own ward scheme. It probably wasn't the best, and he probably wasn't the first to come up with it, but he was proud of it. He would set up a different enchantment on each of the first six stones and spread them out in a hexagon on the perimeter of the property. The seventh stone would be a monitoring stone attached to all the other stones. This was the one that he would attach to himself(not attach to his person), so that he would be notified at all times about all his wards. The scheme was designed so that each of the stones would be at maximum efficiency, having only one thing to do. When an object had multiple enchantments, each enchantment would take an amount of magic, while a third amount of magic would have to work to distribute itself as needed. With his scheme, he was cutting what he liked to call management weight.

Draco had stopped coughing and hacking by the time he finished the second stone. This one was for comfort. It would regulate temperature, keep bugs away (since not having the capability, they were immune to the notice me not ward). "What the _fuck_ was _that_ Potter?" he asked angrily. Harry was not intimidated. He wouldn't be either way, but it certainly didn't help that Draco's voice was still scratchy and came out a bit higher than normal.

"Training, Malfoy," Harry bit out in between incantations.

"Was that necessary?" he grumbled.

"Yes," Harry said simply.

"Fine, whatever. Now that I know you were going to attack me like a muggle-"

"It was supposed to be a vampire biting you on the neck. The venom would've made you feel worse than choking anyways, so you should've been able to get in control and banished me away then anyways," Harry corrected without looking at Draco, still thinking about the wards. "Now, do what you should've done if you saw a vampire coming."

"Fine." Draco brought out his wand and conjured a small ring of fire to buy him time while he conjured more garlic all around him.

Harry could only gawk at him. "Are you serious Malfoy? Garlic?" He almost laughed. "You know garlic doesn't actually bother vampires?" This time he did laugh after saying that.

Draco blushed, but told himself Harry was wrong. "Quirrell told us in first year, Potter. This is really basic material," by the end of his sentence he had a smug look to him.

Harry palmed his face. "Malfoy... Take out your auror handbook and look at the vampire page. Read that quickly. First though, I'll show you how you would be wrong anyways." Harry then picked up a rock and threw it at Draco's head. It bounced off with a small_ thud_. Draco cursed and dropped his wand as well as dropping to the floor. The fire automatically died. Harry shook his head.

"Before you conjure the fire, conjure a shield to protect yourself. Then conjure the fire." Harry then went back to warding. This was the pace for the rest of the day. Harry would finish a ward, injure Draco in some way, and teach him a lesson. Harry hadn't had this much fun in years.

When Harry finished warding against magical detection and notice me not charms, Draco had finished reading. This time he did not conjure garlic. He cast a shield and then the fire. Harry cast a banishing charm on the ground and jumped over the fire and kicked Draco.

While Draco was recovering from the chest kick, Harry warded against letting anyone in without his permission.

Draco then cast the shield towards Harry and conjured pillars of rotating fire that would go around his whole person, leaving no spots for a vampire to jump in. Harry summoned a chair behind Draco, hitting him and breaking his spells. He then warded the next stone against projectiles attacking the home. The next wards were against magical attacks and then finally cast the monitoring charm that was attached on the other stones.

By the time he finished the last one, Draco was standing behind a veritable anti-vampire fortress of magic. Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco while Draco thought he had finally won. Draco relaxed his posture and gave Harry a smug grin.

Harry stood there for about thirty seconds before he shook his head. "I've been standing here for over a minute and you've not tried to attack me or even talk to me to see if I'm a threat," he said disappointed. "We'll continue this another day, Malfoy."

Draco was tired and more than a bit humiliated. He decided he would save the fight for another day and drop down on the couch and sleep forever. He went to go inside when Harry stopped him.

"We have to do one more thing," Harry announced.

"What is that?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"Let's go get a car," Harry grinned.

* * *

Leah was sitting down with her back on a tree. She was hiding from everyone. The Volturi had run home with their tails between their legs. Everyone cheered and they all were prepared to live happily ever after, Leah knew better than that. She would never get a happy ending. God, she knew she sounded emotional, but right now she was too depressed.

A week after the Volturi left, came a coven of three vampires. They thought it was strange how the vampires immediately fought their pack, they had not been surprised to see giant wolves coming at them at all. Jacob chalked it up to them just being tough, although not very tough fighters. Sam tried to say that they were friends of the Cullens, and that's how they knew. Not even his own pack listened to him. Leah's theory was that they were going to have trouble while Bella was still in the area and that they should kick her out. The smartest theory actually came from the youngest wolf on Sam's pack. A boy turned a week before the Volturi who they called Mac. He reasoned out that since there were about a hundred vampires at the confrontation, chances were, that most vampires would know of them by now, and all of them would in a few weeks.

Leah sighed and got up. She had a meeting to go to. Both packs were getting together with the local leeches to inform them of what was going on. She disliked how close the werewolves were getting with the leeches. They all bonded a bit during the confrontation against the police leeches (The Volturi, she thought they were named).

Her own pack warmed up to the leeches because both Seth and Jacob were friends with most of them. They were all even affected by Jacob's imprint. The whole time that they were phased together, he would always think about Nessie. It was like a brainwash coming from your Alpha. Sometimes she thought that he secretly put Alpha commands to love her because even Leah was not completely immune.

The younger wolves in Sam's pack all were brought on to the Cullen Dark Side because they enjoyed how the Cullens had stood up for them in front of a giant gathering of vampires. They didn't blame the Cullens for the fact that they had to phase, they thought it was the coolest thing in the world. The youngest enjoyed it so much that they sometimes slept as wolves just for the fun of it.

Leah, however was still very much bitter about everything that happened to her. She still blamed the Cullens for Sam phasing, for him imprinting on her cousin, for her phasing, and for her dad dying. The only people that disliked the Cullens as much as she did were Sam and Paul. That almost made her change her mind, she hated agreeing with Sam. And Paul.

She decided it was time to get up and to stop being bitter. She was going to take control of her life and stop wallowing. She knew that she said this almost hourly and within five minutes she would be back to being a bitter harpy; but it was comforting for now. She got up and undressed quickly, strapping all her clothes on her leg. She hated how the whole pack had seen her naked through the mind link, but she quickly learned to think of something else other than her common body insecurities. Blaming Sam and Bella was the best choice in distractions.

Running swiftly through the trees she passed a few of Sam's pack on their shared destination. If there was one thing she loved about being a wolf, it was the speed. She was the fastest. She would throw that in Jacob's face whenever she could. That was also why she was still Beta of their pack, she could get anywhere they needed her the fastest.

She was the first one there. She slipped the dress she was carrying over her head - no underwear - and waited. Old Quil was actually the one that had suggested a dress instead of shorts and a tank top like she previously used. She thought he was just being the dirty old man that he was, but after giving it some thought, it had a lot of merit. It could easily be slipped over her head, or pushed down her body. It always bothered her how the guys could just throw on some shorts and be done while she had to put on a tank top and bottoms every time.

Apparently, during her musings, the packs had gathered and were walking in the crypt. She followed them in to the huge table set up in the dining room, immediately to the right of the door. She took the seat closest to the door, as if to get fresh air that didn't quite smell as bad as the vampires. Jake sat next to her on one side and Esme on the other. Next to Jake was the rest of her pack, followed by Sam's pack. On the other side of Leah, next to Esme, was Dr. Leech, papa leech, mama leech, little half leech, vain leech, giant leech, gypsy leech, and the scarred emo leech last. She was quite proud of her naming scheme.

The Meeting started short afterward. She actually later named the meeting "The Meeting". To her, this would always be The Meeting.

When the packs brought up what Mac had noticed, Esme - Leah couldn't bring herself to call her a leech, she sometimes thought that was her freaky power, no one could hate Esme - covered her mouth and gasped. The mind-rapist widened his eyes and nodded his head at Esme. He saved us all the half a second that it would've taken Esme to start talking and explained it for her. "I should've seen this coming." Leah rolled her eyes at his arrogance; after all, it must be hard knowing stuff when he can see what everyone is thinking. "Esme thinks that the Volturi are feeding our world misinformation about us, so everyone will come and attack us. They are probably feeding it as a challenge to trackers, danger to paranoids... they could probably find a way to sell it anyone that they should attack us."

"They're going to kill us all without moving a finger, great," Leah said. She could see Bella's face go scared and she threw herself even more on top of the mind-rapist. Leah swore she could hear their hard skin make grinding noises with how hard she was pressed against him. She got a mental picture of them grinding against each other and immediately tried to shake her head to dislodge the image. She did not want to think about that. Edward looked at her and winced a bit, she didn't know if it was from the image or the chaffing that he probably gets from Bella never letting go. Bella was the only one to react much to her words, however. Most everyone else was used to her bitchiness. She didn't know whether to be proud or sad at that.

"If that is indeed what they are doing, then we need to work together more than ever," Dr. Fang reasoned. She didn't mind him that much, but she couldn't lose face. Even in her own mind. "I suggest, both my family and Sam's pack patrols their own territories, while Jacob's pack acts as backup and tracking any leads we find."

Leah's ears perked up at that. That sounded a lot like they were the all around special forces of their team. She liked that. She saw Edward give her a small smile at her train of thought and she smiled back. Then her mind caught up to her and she thought of Jacob and Nessie having sex and glared at he mind-rapist. He didn't look at her or Jacob for the rest of the meeting.

"I would be happy to let both your packs patrol our side if that is what you wish." She caught on to what they were saying.

"We cannot allow you on our land," Sam was unyielding.

Jacob tried to help the leeches now that he was all buddy-buddy with them. "How about we let Carlisle and Bella patrol, neither of them have ever taken a human life. From what we've seen it's almost impossible for either of them to slip."

Leah thought that he had a point. Even though she doubted Bella could stand to be away from her leech for that long.

"Absolutely not, if Bella is going so am I." It seemed to Leah the mind reader is just as needy as she is.

"Edward..." Bella whimpered. Leah was disgusted. She didn't go to the meeting to see them fuck each other with their eyes. In front of their kid too.

Sam tried to get the meeting back in order. "We aren't even sure if that's what is actually happening. We'll revisit this if we find that a lot more vampires are attacking." They all nodded in agreement.

That was when they all heard a car going up the drive way. Leah looked around at everyone gathered at the enlarged table Esme ordered especially for these meetings. She could see pretty much everyone there. There were a couple of the younger kids missing, but none of them could drive anyways. It might be one of the tribal elders, but why would they drive all the way out here? She didn't even think that they knew where the Cullen's house was.

She looked towards the gypsy-leech, but she seemed surprised as well. She remembered that she couldn't see at all when they were visiting, so it didn't help. She looked towards the mind-rapist and he looked frustrated as well. Interesting.

She didn't recognize the male voice that she heard, especially because it sounded British. "Merlin, Potter. Why in the world would anyone would willingly get into that thing-" This was the first time that she heard a British accent in person. She saw everyone look around at each other a bit confused.

"Malfoy, it's called a car, now stop making a fool of yourself," the other male's voice came. His voice was also British and a little deeper.

She thought it was a bit odd that he had to explain what a car was, but maybe he was just being sarcastic.

"Ok Potter, what's our strategy?" the one named Malfoy asked.

"Strategy? What are you talking about, we're just introducing ourselves," was Potter's reply. She liked his voice. It sounded very pleasant.

"What? Potter, we need a-"

_Knock, Knock._

Leah heard Malfoy huff in displeasure. The bloke didn't sound like a very cheerful fellow.

The knocking did however make everyone else jump, even if they were all listening raptly. They all stared at each other, not knowing what to do, until Esme walked to the door to greet them.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hello, I'm Esme Cullen."

Esme had opened the door wide and everyone could see the visitors. Leah looked at a blond one first. His hair was very fair, and his skin even more so. He had a very displeased look on him and was glaring at the other visitor. He did however mumble a quick "hullo." at Esme. He was dressed in blue jeans and a black long sleeved sweater. She noticed that he looked a bit uncomfortable in those clothes. He also had on a green and silver scarf wrapped around his neck. Leah thought about how weird it was to see them so dressed up compared to everyone else, but she realized that it was indeed probably cold out, just everyone in the house wasn't affected by the weather.

"Hullo, my name is Harry Potter and this is Draco Malfoy."

Leah looked toward the other visitor and saw the most beautiful emerald green eyes that she'd ever seen. Her breath caught. Her whole world shifted. She saw strings attached to Sam and Emily, strings which were tense and hurting her, snap away. She saw string attaching her to her pack snap away. String attached to her family, Sam's pack, the Quileute tribe, all possessions, past pets, everything that made her, snap away and all gather into one unbreakable steel cable which attached itself to Harry in an unbreakable hold.

She always told herself that if she would never imprint, that she wouldn't like her choice being taken away from her like it had been for Sam's. She hated imprinting for the whole time that she's known of it, she even resented that Jacob was now happy instead of suffering with her about unrequited love. However, if she was honest, she would've given her soul away to imprint. She always argued against it because she was in pain and because as a female werewolf, she thought she didn't have the capability. Now that she imprinted, she knew she was going to get at least a few thousand hours of teasing for imprinting.

It wasn't just imprinting that she would get teased for, but how happy she was about it. Right now, she had to grab the sides of her chair to stop herself from jumping up and screaming in joy. That or jumping Harry, she didn't know which was more likely.

She now looked at the rest of him. He was dressed similarly to his friend. He was wearing faded jeans that hugged his thighs in ways that should be illegal while being a bit more loose toward the lower legs. He was also wearing a tight long sleeved red t-shirt that made her drool a bit in her mouth. She had to discreetly swallow. He also was wearing a scarf similar to his friend, but his was red and gold. Those were her new favorite colors, she decided. She noticed a scar on his hand that looked like a sentence, but she wasn't able to make out what it said. She finally looked at his face and while she very much liked what she saw, she noticed a few scars that would be unnoticeable by human eye sprinkled on his face, and a big jagged scar on his forehead. It looked a bit like a thunderbolt.

Her brain restarted just in time for her to hear the rest of his introduction. She didn't want to miss a moment of this.

"We just moved here from England and we decided to visit our neighbors. We don't know anyone else and we were a bit restless sitting in the house all day." Then he looked toward the rest of the people there and he looked at bit surprised at the amount of people there. Leah thought it was probably a bit intimidating to see all of her people and all of the vampires in one table, but her Imprint was perfect, so he showed no fear. "Oh, are you having a meeting? I apologize for the interruption then. Could we come back another day then?" he asked in a polite tone.

Edward then got up and introduced himself. His face showed a lot of curiosity. Not an unsightly amount, but more than she was used to from the leech. At least to anyone that wasn't Bella. She really hoped that he wasn't about to try to make her imprint fall in love with him too.

"Hello, my name is Edward. We were just having a get together with friends from La Push, the reservation," his tone was polite but it wasn't inviting.

"I understand. Well, I'm sorry for interrupting. We'll just-"

Leah panicked. She didn't want Harry to leave. She needed to spend time with him. Her whole existence depended on that! She knew she was overreacting a bit, but she didn't care at the moment.

"No!" Everyone turned toward her surprised. She looked toward Harry and started out as nonchalantly as she could manage, "We were all about to start cooking dinner, you can stay if you want."

Now everyone definitely _was _gawking at her. She could see a few people pinching themselves. Jacob and Sam even started glaring at her. To be fair, she was interrupting their meeting, but it was pretty much over, she reasoned.

"Err.. I don't want to impose-" Harry, it seemed, was not oblivious to the glares around the room. She was extremely thankful for the other human then for being oblivious.

"Great! We would love to. You won't believe how badly Potter there cooks. I mean, he can cook breakfast, but that's about it," Malfoy rambled on to no one in particular. He walked in and sat where Edward was seated, before he got up. Draco looked to his left towards Bella and held out a hand "Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

Leah looked toward Harry and had to cough to hide a laugh when he sighed and covered his face with his hand. He looked very tired of dealing with his friend. She also saw Edward raise an eyebrow at the blonde.

Bella was looking bemused while shaking hands with him. "Um. Hi, I'm Bella." Malfoy smiled wide. "This is my daughter Renesmee," Bella took Nessie on her lap.

Malfoy's smile dropped comically fast. "Ouch. Daughter."

"Malfoy, stop being a git," Harry tried to whisper. Trying, meant whispering across three people. Obviously it failed, but Leah thought it was a valiant effort.

"Mrs. Cullen, I really hope it's no problem. We can definitely go to a diner, I really don't want to intrude," Harry said. Leah was losing faith in the usually vaunted Cullen hospitality. Nobody had offered him a chair or tried to make him feel welcome in the least.

As if reading her mind, Esme took charge. "Nonsense Harry! We'd love to have you over. I think we'd all like to get to know you. Right guys?" Somehow Esme made the question make everyone, werewolves included, feel scolded. A round of agreements came faster than she'd thought possible. "See. We would love to have you. Here, you can have my seat while I prepare dinner," Esme half pushed him down onto her old seat.

Leah couldn't be happier with this arrangement. She thought about subtly pushing the chair closer to her with her foot, but she didn't think she'd get away with it. "Thank you so much," Harry said politely. He then turned towards the girl that spoke up and invited him in first. Leah got a full whiff of his scent. It was powerful, it almost made her grip her chair to stop herself from jumping him. He smelled like a mix of different types of woods. Too many to be able to tell apart. Not only that, but he smelled incredibly sweet. Not like the leeches, they always burned her nose, Harry made her want to bury her nose on him. She had always loved woodsy smells.

When they made eye contact he seemed to have a little trouble remembering what he was about to say. She hoped that it was the reaction she thought it was. She saw him take a deep breath and then say "Thanks for inviting me in. It was very nice of you."

Leah glared at the few snickers from the werewolves when Harry called her nice. She smiled at him and stuck out her hand. "Leah Clearwater." She felt callouses on his hands, it looked like he was a hard worker. She was falling more and more in love with him.

There was a few seconds of silence after that where nobody seemed to know what to say. Carlisle was the one to break it. "Well, I think we should introduce everyone else. My name is Carlisle and I'm Esme's Husband. Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice are my adoptive children. Bella is Edward's Wife and little Nessie is their daughter." Jacob then went through all of the wolves currently there.

Harry smiled. "Nice to meet you all."

Malfoy just looked around and commented, "not a lot of girls at your reservation? Lots of blokes here... and why are you guys almost starkers?"

Harry had closed his eyes in exasperation but opened them back up and looked around, noticing that his friend was right. He probably thought it was weird too.

Edward was the one that came to the rescue. "They thought it'd be fun to have a water fight in the middle of the cold." He lied expertly. He even added an eye roll for effect. Leah was impressed. "We're running their clothes in the dryer right now. I think they should be done. Would you like to help me get them Bella?" to which she replied, "of course." They quickly got up and went toward the laundry room. They would probably run to Alice's room to get clothes for them.

Another bout of silence lasted until Emmett asked, "did you guys come with anyone else from England?" to which he got a quick negative from Harry. Emmett then blurted out, "so are you two dating?"

The Cullens around the table had different reactions from wide eyed surprise, to exasperation or amusement. Pretty much all the wolves snickered. The only one that didn't was Leah, who was suddenly very worried that her imprint was in fact gay and that he would never like her. That would only happen to her.

Harry looked a bit indignant at the question, but nothing like Malfoy. "What? You think we're poofs! How dare you? I look nothing like a poof!"

Harry looked at Malfoy appraisingly. "Well, I think he's only saying _you _look like a poof."

"What? How in Merlin did you get that?" Malfoy demanded, enraged.

"Well usually one person in the couple acts like the girl and the other like the bloke right? Well you'd definitely be the girl," Harry smirked.

"Take that back Potter! I would never. Name one reason for why I'd be the girl," Malfoy tried to challenge.

Harry laughed. "There's a lot of reasons. First of all I saved your life, which would make you the damsel in distress." Malfoy made a face but didn't say anything. "You ran away when you saw that squirrel yesterday."

"It was in my room and I thought it was a rat, you would've done the same thing."

"You look like you spend way too much time on your hair."

"It's not a bad thing to look good Potter, you should try it."

"You asked me to switch rooms with you because my room had a bigger mirror." Harry said laughing.

"Again, it's not a bad thing to spend time on-"

"You brought three times the clothes as me."

"Again, it's not a bad thing-

"You like blokes."

"_Again_, it's not a bad thing to- Potter!" Malfoy fumed with a red face while everyone laughed. Leah couldn't remember the last time she laughed so hard.

That seemed to break the ice. The wolves talked among themselves, while the vampires tried to include the visitors in their conversations, although Emmett was mostly just teasing Malfoy.

Leah tried to talk as well, but she was very nervous. She had to wipe her sweaty hands on her dress a few times. She didn't talk much until Harry asked her a question. "So which one of those is your boyfriend," Harry pointed at all the Quileute men. "One of them had to have dragged you here with them right?" She was a bit indignant at the implication that she couldn't hang out with the men. However she decided to delude herself and that he was trying to subtly ask if she was available.

"No," she said laughing. "I'm not dating any of those barbarians. Why? Are you implying I can't hang with the men?" She asked with a playful raised eyebrow.

He laughed at that. "Of course not. I bet you can kick our arses anyways," pointing toward himself and Malfoy. "Well, at least Malfoy's," he amended.

Leah giggled. She found hilarious how much he ragged on his friend. Especially how it seemed to never fail riling him up. She was about to reply when she noticed the unnatural silence. She reluctantly looked away from Harry to notice most of the table staring at her. Some of them looked like they saw a ghost. She felt her face and wracked her brain to figure out why they were doing. Then it hit her. She giggled. She never giggled. She sometimes cackled when someone was in a particularly high amount of pain, but never giggled.

She didn't know what to do, so she decided to high tail out of there. "Err. I'm going to go help Esme with the cooking."

"Would you like help?" Harry asked.

Her mind warred between wanting to spend more time with him and a very recent dream of cooking and serving him his food. She shook herself off that dream. That was so not her. "Sure. That'd be nice."

When they were walking away she whispered. "Really wanted to get away from the stares, huh?"

He looked like he was going to deny it, but he finally just sheepishly nodded "Yeah, pretty much."

She giggled again at that and heard one of the wolves fall out of their chair.

She rolled her eyes and motioned for Harry to follow her. She'd never been in the kitchen before, but she could hear where Esme was. "Hey Esme, would you like some help with the meal?" Leah asked.

Esme looked surprised, but she smiled and seemed grateful nonetheless. "Sure, I just finished cooking. Harry, dear, can you take these plates to the table, just ask someone there to pass them out." When harry left, she turned to Leah. "Such a polite young man."

"Yeah..." Leah said dreamily. She quickly got a hold of herself. "More polite than any of those imbeciles out there anyways," she grumbled.

The meal passed in a fury of food being shoveled down hungry wolves' throats. It took a few minutes for some of the wolves that weren't in her pack to start eating. They kept looking down at the meal in suspicion. That lasted until they saw Jacob and Seth take about half of the mashed potatoes. That's when Paul loudly complained and tried to load his plate. That just about broke everyone out of their stupor and fought over the food. Leah made sure to fill up a plate for Harry before everything was gone. She was surprised at how much Harry and his friend ate. For being as skinny as they were, they ate only a little less than the wolves, albeit with much better manners. She looked towards their stomachs and it seemed like if the food magically disappeared in there, because by all rights they should've been bulging out.

The whole day seemed like an extremely perfect day to her. Of course, it all had to come crashing down on her. Harry had a girlfriend. A girlfriend of almost six years. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to stab Sam and Bella in the eye. The only thing that gave her hope was that it looked like it might not be going that well for him. That gave her purpose. She would do anything to get him away from the _whore_ he was dating. She was sure she was a whore. There was never a question in her mind. It came up when they were talking about what Harry's friends thought about him leaving for a few months from England.

"You must miss them, being so far from them," Bella said.

"Well, we've only been gone for a couple of days really, but I do miss my best friends a little already," Harry said with a small hint of melancholy.

"What'd they have to say about you leaving?" Alice asked.

"Ron, surprisingly was understanding about it. Plus, he expects it'll only be a few months. Hermione was mad and cried a bit, but we're pretty sure it was the pregnancy," he said getting some chuckles. "My godson was the hardest to leave, but his grandma'll take care of him, and I'll get them to visit in a few weeks."

"What about Weaselette?" Malfoy asked.

"Huh?" Harry scrunched up his eyebrows in deep thought, like he was trying to remember something.

"Your girlfriend, Potter," Malfoy laughed.

Leah felt her heart plummet. That word, she wanted to find all the dictionaries in the house, take a soldering iron and burn out girlfriend out of them all. Then she would blissfully pretend that the word didn't exist, and that Harry did not, in fact, have a burn-mark on a dictionary that he left back home. She was brought out of her misery by what Harry did next. Even in her agony, she still almost laughed at what he did next.

He scrunched up his face a bit more like if he was about to get a headache and then dropped his fork. His face snapped into a look that Leah could only call horror. Emmett and Malfoy were the first to get it and immediately roared with laughter.

"Oh Merlin! Potter! You _would_ forget to tell your girlfriend you're leaving for months. Oh, you just made my day," every sentence was paused because of the laughter that wouldn't stop. Finally Malfoy took control of his breath and finally said "Well, I've always told you that even _you_ could've done better than Weaselette." Leah nodded with him for a second before she noticed what she was doing. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

"Any chance she hasn't noticed yet?" Harry asked hopefully.

Malfoy immediately crushed his hopes. "Nah, I went to Astoria's practice to tell her, and your girlfriend was there when I said I was stuck with you for the next few months."

A loud thud sounded when Harry groaned and hit his head on the table. "That sounded a little hollow didn't it?" Malfoy stage whispered to Bella.

"Malfoy? Shut it," Harry said.

The rest of the dinner was a lively affair. Leah spent most of the time trying to learn more about harry, whether asking him questions or listening to whatever others asked him. Edward, knowing what she was thinking, decided to help her, and asked almost as many questions as she did. He was also much better at leading questions to get more information from him.

With that, she learned about his best friends, ones that he met when he was eleven and have been inseparable ever since. He was an orphan and his parents died when he was one in a car crash. That's where he got the scar on his forehead. There wasn't any way to ask about the other scars on his face, because she shouldn't have been able to see them.

She tried to be subtle when she asked more about his girlfriend, but based on Edward's smirk she thought she failed. She learned that she was his best friend's little sister who pined over him for five years before he gave her the time of day and then they kind of fell in love. She clutched on the the "kind of" with all her might to give herself hope.

The thing that bothered her was when they asked about his work. Harry, she found out, was very good at directing attention to something else. She didn't know how he did it, but they'd ask him a question that she finally thought he had no way to be vague about, but he'd just wave it off and comment on something else. She'd instantly be enraptured to whatever he said next. One time she asked him about how he did in high school. He waved his hand, and he said oh, fine. She didn't remember how it led to them talking about tile patterns, but that's what she remembered talking about afterward.

When dinner was over Harry said that they had to leave and buy stuff for their new house. He thanked Esme profusely and shook hands with a few people that were close. He shook her hand last, and held it the longest, she thought smugly. When they were almost out the door, Leah decided to throw caution to the wind.

She slipped by as Carlisle was closing the door and walked up to Harry. She was full of determination, despite her nerves. Her not-so-great plan was to come out here and somehow get them to meet again. Hopefully alone. With some whip-cream.

Her great plan was stopped when she saw the car they were driving. She had opened her mouth to spew out the first thing that came out her mouth, which she hoped wasn't 'will you marry me', but what came out was "Whose car is _that_?"

Harry looked at the car then her in surprise. He hadn't seen her come out. "Oh. That's mine," he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He looked a bit shy for some reason.

"Holy _fuck,_" she gaped. Standing next to Harry, with the door opened in a way that she only saw on TV with the door sliding upwards instead of outwards, was the sexiest car she ever saw. She didn't know the name, she'd have to ask Jacob later when he saw in her mind. All she knew was that it was one of the most expensive things out there. Her imprint was _loaded_. That made her feel a bit insecure in her raggedy dress that she just noticed had a bit of tree sap on the side. "Um. Wow. Nice car."

Harry definitely looked nervous now. He was fidgeting now. Did he steal it? Did he get it through money selling drugs? She thought he wasn't because his friend was staring at him amusedly, like if this was normal.

"Err. Thanks. I'm not really sure what it's called... I just asked for a fast car before we left England and this is what they suggested..." Harry started to ramble. Leah could only gawk at him. Spending that amount of money without even finding out the name of a car meant he had some serious money. "Do you wanna drive it?" he asked her, holding out the keys.

Her mouth went dry. An image of her driving the car while Harry was next to her had her shaking in excitement. Malfoy had to ruin it though. "Potter, you can come back and waste your time tomorrow. It's late." Leah growled at him very quietly.

Harry sighed and looked at her a bit regretfully. "I'm sorry. Another time maybe?" he asked politely.

Even though she knew that he was only being polite and that he didn't really want to drive all the way back here just to let her drive a car, the offer of a later meeting was too much for her. This explained what she said next, at least in her mind "Sure! Do you want my number?" she asked a bit too brightly as well.

She wanted to smack herself for going so strongly, but Harry seemed pleased enough, even if she didn't like the smirk on Malfoy's face. That smirk said that Harry would be teased later. "Err. Yeah. I would love that." he smiled at her. She smiled happily back.

He conveniently pulled out a piece of paper and a pen out his pocket. Malfoy was staring at the pen weirdly for some reason. She quickly told him the number and got away from him as quickly as possible as to not make more of a fool out of herself.

When she came in with a smile on her face, the faces around the table were of a wide variety. Edward looked in understanding. Bella looked confused. Jacob and, oddly, Paul, looked hopeful. They figured out she probably imprinted. Sam looked weary, and a tiny bit jealous, she thought. The other vampires mostly looked confused. Except for Rosalie. She looked bored. The rest of the wolves look extremely confused and more than a bit scared.

"What the hell was all that about Leah?" Seth's near shout broke the silence.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Leah denied primly.

"Ooh ooh, let me take this one!" Embry said. "I made a list!"

Leah grimaced. She had made a list about all the things that was wrong with him once when he tried being nice to her. He had phased in the middle of her crying on patrol about Sam when she thought she was alone, and tried to comfort her. She made his life miserable for a month afterward. She knew it would come back to bite her.

"Ok ok," Embry started out. "First, you invited him in, in the first place. You're never welcoming." She recognized the tone of voice as the one she used against him. His had a bit of playfulness to it that hers didn't have though. She was grateful for small favors. "Secondly, you were sympathetic towards them; you're never sympathetic. You've sat next to the Cullens all day and didn't complain once; you never stop complaining about them." She looked at the Cullens and winced. She would try being nicer to them. Maybe. "Then you barely insulted any of us. You _always_ insult us." He was about to continue the list that she was sure was pages long when she decided to just come clean, because there really was no way out of it now.

She held up her hand to stop him and opened her mouth to tell them she imprinted when Embry rushed out "Wait, wait! One more!" She rolled her eyes and motioned with her hand to go on. Here, Embry paused and crouched a tiny bit as if about to tell a secret. He looked at everyone to make sure they were all watching and whispered in a voice not unlike a scared child. "You... _giggled,_" he dramatically whispered.

Everyone was staring at her with rapt attention for her answer. She couldn't help it, it was all too much. She tried to hold it in valiantly, but she couldn't. She giggled again.

Seth gasped. One of the younger wolves whimpered.

"Oh stop being dramatic," she rolled her eyes. "I just... you know... IimprintedonHarry," she mumbled out.

Of course, everyone had supernatural hearing, so they all knew exactly what she said, but Jacob still asked her to repeat herself with a wide shit eating grin.

She smiled and repeated herself with a bit of red on her cheeks. "I imprinted on Harry."

Then the house exploded in cheers. Everyone was extremely happy. Leah was happy as well. She laughed with them, in a good mood since what seemed like decades. Everyone was hugging each other in relief. She even caught Sam hugging Jacob and mumbling "Oh thank god, thank god." She smiled a bit at that, she was glad she didn't have to make his life hell anymore. She might even be able to be friends with Emily again.

Of course, it stopped warming her spirits when she heard many of Sam's pack, and Quil too saying things like "Oh finally she'll stop being a bitch," or, "I never thought she'd get that stick out of her ass," and even, "Oh relief. Sweet relief." She still had to remain badass, so she smacked Quil on the head and glared at him for that last one. She decided to leave when she saw Sam and Carlisle shaking hands like if they just resolved world peace. She decided not to think on that last one too much.

* * *

For the next few days, Leah stalked Harry as best as she could. When she had to sleep, she would ask one of the wolves patrolling to keep an eye on him. She didn't know where he lived yet; she tried to follow him, but once he got close to his house, she would find herself not wanting to intrude in his privacy and going back home.

Her conscience was annoying the hell out of her. She had never been this polite, even before Sam broke her heart.

Every few hours she would change her mind. She not only wanted to visit him just to watch him and be a creepy stalker, but now she was also worried about his safety. They had caught a scent of vampire that seemed like it scouted around that area. The scent went a few feet into their territory, and then back out. They tried following it, but eventually it was too old and they ended up losing it across a river.

After they lost the scent she ran as fast as she could towards where she last saw him, only for her to find herself running back towards her house because she knew that he wouldn't appreciate anyone invading his privacy. She noticed that in her brief time with him that he was a very private person. He was very good at redirecting and he seemed very uncomfortable talking about himself sometimes. She wanted to respect his privacy since she cared about him so much.

Now she was trying to sleep and couldn't do anything but keep worrying. She changed her mind again. She wanted nothing but to see him. She had no idea why she ever went back home.

She laid down once more and then immediately got up and started pacing again. She had a bad feeling about tonight. It wasn't her night to patrol, but she decided to go and phase just to run off some energy. When she did, she was immediately glad that she had.

She could see through Quil's mind. Quil had been patrolling with the younger wolf from Sam's pack, Mac. Tonight was supposed to be Sam's turn, but Emily's face was bothering her again.

When Sam had first broken her heart, she thought that Emily's face was karma for what she did to Leah. She was happy that Emily had paid for her agony. Whenever she saw her face, she felt just a tiny bit better about her own pain. She always thought it was just superficial, and that it only made her look uglier. It seemed true because Emily was still so happy around Sam and so lively that it seemed like the injury didn't affect her at all.

When she phased for the first time, she didn't notice too much because she always angry at how happy she made Sam, or angry at how much guiltier he felt about injuring Emily than injuring her, even if it was only emotionally. It wasn't until a few months later that she paid the smallest amount of attention to what Sam was always thinking when feeling guilty about the injury.

When she learned everything, she felt so guilty for being a bitch to Emily, that all she could do was dig herself deeper into her inner bitch. There was no way that she could try to reconcile with her, and she was still extremely bitter. She was even bitter at how that made everyone more sympathetic to Sam and Emily. She went from a betrayed woman to a bitter harpy after that.

Now that she got rid of all her anger overnight, it hit her how bad Emily was. Her scars all ran deep, her nerve endings still hurt at times at the slightest bit of cold or heat. She had to rub a cream on them to numb them a bit or else it would hurt all day. That wasn't the worst part though. Her eye. The eyelid is injured, so it's very hard for Emily to properly hydrate the eye. It's always dry and burning and the eyelid sometimes just stopped blinking. She had to put eye drops in frequently. It made Leah feel extremely guilty that she wasn't there for her ex best friend. She should have been there to help her through that. Now she was too ashamed to make up with Emily for all she put her through.

Quil's internal panic brought her out of her sulking. He was fighting off a group of two vampires. He could also see out of the corner of his eye that there was a vampire top of Mac. The vampire was hanging on for all his worth while Mac was desperately thrashing to throw him off. The vampire had just lost a grip on one hand, ripping out a bunch of fur in the process, when Mac gave one last lurch and threw the vampire off him. Leah took the time to howl as loudly as she could, trying to get all wolves to come out and go help. After that she set off in the fastest sprint she could towards them to help.

Her heart plummeted when she focused back on Quil and saw that he was back to back with Mac and two more vampires had arrived. They were now completely outnumbered with five-on-two. She pumped her legs even faster, but she knew she would never get there on time. It would take her at least ten minutes, with how far they were. That meant probably twenty minutes before anyone else showed up, so even if she showed up before they were both dead, she didn't think that she would be able to make that much of a difference. She was fast, yes, but a heavy weight fighter, she was not. She could hunt down anyone trying to run away, but face to face combat, she was only better than the younger wolves.

That didn't mean that she wouldn't try anyways. She would lay her life down for any of her pack. Either pack. She saw Quil's heart soar at that. "I love you Leah, you're the best sister-wolf that we could ever have. Even when you were bitter, we all still loved you."

"Stop being a pussy, you're not fucking dying," she replied back. Just because she had imprinted, didn't mean she would get in line for group hugs. She was still uncomfortable showing too much emotion. She reverted back to bitch in those cases.

"Take care of Claire for me, please, Leah," Quil begged. She could tell he was already preparing to die.

She cursed. "Whatever! Just fucking concentrate you shit brain."

Leah was about half way there. The vampires were still playing with the two wolves. They had them cornered, alone and scared. They were laughing and gloating in their victory.

"Don't bad guys know not to gloat?" Quil asked, showing that he was either hysterical, or just completely gave in, and found humor in it now.

Mac was praying for the God above them to help them. Leah yelled at him to get his head in the game and stop praying for someone to help him, he had to help himself. People rarely got help.

She had to eat her words.

They heard a distorted voice come from high above them. It shouted off a weird word. Latin, she thought it was.

"_ignis sacer!_"

Encircling both Quil and Mac, a ring of fire sprung up from the ground. The fire was unnatural, they could both easily tell. It was a very bright purple. She had heard of blue flames and even green when she burned certain woods in the beach, but she had _never_ heard of purple fire. The other reason that it was unnatural was the way that neither Mac nor Quil could feel any heat coming from it, even though it was less than a foot away.

Quil, being the retard he was, decided to stick his paw through the fire to see if it was hot or not. Luckily for him, it didn't seem to burn him at all. From what Leah could feel through the link, it actually felt nice through his fur.

The bad thing was that one of the vampires saw this as well. They had all backed up after the mysterious fire sprung up but now they gained confidence back from seeing that Quil was unharmed.

"Ha, it's just an illusion." The biggest vampire said. He was nearly as big as Emmett. It wasn't as scary on him though. Being next to a two ton wolf will make anything seem small. His voice had been almost pleasant, for the situation at least. Suddenly it changed to a screech. "Attack them!"

The other vampires lowered themselves into a crouch to spring at the two wolves, with the large vampire on the lead. They all stopped though, when their leader jumped back clutching onto his hand wailing extremely loudly. Even for a vampire with stronger than natural lungs, the screech that came out of his mouth was very loud. Animals in about a mile radius all woke and ran away.

The vampire was shaking his arm pointing at what was left of his hand. It was a disgusting thing, what was left. Quil figured it'd be worse if he could actually bleed, but as it was, it would give him nightmares. It was charred on some areas, cut through as if with an extra sharp knife in other areas. They could see bones and smoking flesh that looked awfully human right now.

"Ouch, what in the bloody hell was _that_? I didn't know vampires could do that," a different voice than they'd previously heard came from the sky. This time, both vampires and wolves looked up.

All they had time to see was a blur in the sky, before a ball of energy came down on one of the vampires. It was quick enough to evade it, but it seemed like an uncomfortably close call for a vampire.

They heard the second voice again. "You _know _how fast they are. immobilize them first."

"Ah. Okay I'll just levitate them, you kill them," the first voice said. This time the vampires had no warning before their only female started to rise into the air as if it was being abducted by aliens. Quil, Mac and the vampires watched wide eyed at the terrified vampire that was slowly _lifting off the ground._

"_Incendio!"_ The second voice sounded.

A ball of fire flew from a now visible figure. She refused to believe what they saw there, so they she looked towards the vampire. It was slowly burning in regular orange-red fire this time. The vampire had time to scream and flail for a good twenty seconds before it was nothing but ash.

Everyone in the field was brought out of their shock when the last of the fire died away. The vampires all ran away as fast as their legs could take them. Both wolves tried to catch them, but only succeeded in taking the injured arm off the large one.

Leah had to command them to stay there and wait for back up. Even if they ran towards the other vampires, they were still outnumbered four-on-two. "Not with the two guys up there helping us," Quil corrected.

Then they remembered what they saw up there. Quil and Mac looked back up to see the two men arguing on broomsticks. They were about thirty feet up in the air, and both of their faces were hard to see for some reason. It was as if they couldn't be focused on.

"Next time use something quicker," the first voice said loudly, finally reaching their ears. It brought them out of the third shock of the night. They looked up again to make sure they were seeing right.

They blinked. They looked at each other, looked back up and blinked again. There were two guys on brooms. Flying. On brooms. In the air.

Mac summed it up pretty nicely. "What the _fuck_?"

They watched as the two men on brooms flew away at a speed even they probably couldn't match. Even if they could match it, they were too stunned to do anything but stare up at the sky with their minds blank.

Quil did manage to get one last inappropriate comment in. "Told you, they should've known not to gloat."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"So they were flying?" Sam asked for the sixth time.

"_Yes,_" Leah hissed.

"On broomsticks?" Jacob asked now.

Leah was tired. She had been the only one phased other than Quil and Mac when the fight went down, so she was the only one that witnessed it. Both Quil and Mac had gone to bed, tired of patrolling, and still slightly in shock. That meant she was the only witness, and the one who had to be questioned.

The whole thing was doubted, until Leah ordered everyone to phase and so that Jacob could replay everything he saw in her mind to Sam's Pack. Even after seeing everything, they seemed to still not believe it. How the male mind worked, she would never know.

Once it was accepted as truth, there was a giant discussion. Her mind was too busy focusing on Harry to be helpful at all, but she did catch a few comments from some of the wolves getting the witches to fight with them, others tried to say that they needed to be killed, because they had too much power and could easily be turned against them.

It was all going over her head, and she wasn't even sure if she was hearing correctly anymore. Everyone's voices started pounding in her head. The last thing she noticed was Sam arguing about how accurate what Leah saw was.

Leah's nerves were already frayed thin from worrying about Harry, worrying when she saw what was happening, and then seeing the impossible. She snapped. "We fucking replayed it for you on their mind four times. Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck do you want. Do you want me to go find the two guys – witches – whatever the fuck they were. Give me a fucking break!" Leah was breathing hard by the end of it.

Jacob, who never knew when he was in danger, joked "Wow Leah. I thought the imprinting had mellowed you out some."

She thought about kicking his ass. She thought about slapping him and maybe kneeing him so hard in the balls that he would taste them. She thought about a lot of different things she would've done a week ago, but honestly, she was too tired right now.

She threw her hands up. "Whatever, I don't care." She said exasperated. "You guys can sit here and talk about how cool it is or go the opposite way and attack them and get us all killed," she had pointed to the wolves that were still talking excitedly and then to Sam and his groupies. "I'm going to check on Harry, because it might have escaped all of you, but we just got attacked by five vampires."

That got their attention. "Yeah, you'd all forgotten about that when something weird happened. You're all forgetting that our families are in danger," she continued on mercilessly.

Sam tried to take charge like he always did. "Alright. Leah, Paul, Jared, you three go and track the vampire scent and try to see if you can find them before they try to get into our lands," Sam pointed at the three. He didn't seem to notice Leah gawk at him. "Who's turn is it to pat-"

"Wait a minute fuck-head," Leah interrupted. "I'm not part of your pack, _and _I'm going to check on Harry. I already said this." She put her hands on her hips to show that she was serious.

When she used to be in their pack, she could see how much Sam loved being in charge, and having control over everyone. He reveled in being able to give orders that had to be followed. He used the alpha command to take away their choice more often than not. Other than seeing his love for Emily, that was the reason for her joining Jacob's pack. Jacob never used it. She had yet to have it used on her since joining him.

Therefore, she knew that Sam didn't like being disobeyed. She could see that he was going to take offense to that, and while she was over him, and not as bitter, that didn't mean she liked him. She still very much disliked him. So, it was no surprise that when she saw Sam struggling to not get angry at her refusal, she shot him a smug grin.

That did it for Sam. He couldn't let it go now. He straightened out to his full height in a show of intimidation and said, "Now, Leah. We have all given a lot up for you, covering for you when you went crazy on us. None of us complained when you insulted all of us. I didn't say anything when you were pining over me and I had to watch that-"

Tears started to come to Leah's eyes. She couldn't believe he would throw that in her face. While her love for him was all gone, and the agony that she went through was gone as well, the memories were all still there. She could remember the sting of betrayal she felt. The memories came all rushing back. As a rule, she didn't cry in front of anyone. The only ones that she would even think about crying in front of, were her mom, dad and Seth. She didn't even want to do it in front of Seth, because then there was a chance the pack could see it.

As soon as the tears came up, her famous anger came back full force. She took two steps, and punched him in the stomach. While it didn't hurt him too much, he still had to double over and hold his stomach. She took that opportunity to drive her knee to his face. Once he dropped, she viciously stomped on one of the hands that was on the ground and heard the most satisfying _crunch_.

Two seconds later, she was out the door and phasing, ripping all of her clothes to shreds in the process.

* * *

"Oi. Potter," Draco shouted over the wind when they were flying back home. They had tracked down all of the vampires down. It wasn't too hard on broomsticks, they had a bird's eye from up high. Harry was the fastest of the two on broomsticks, so he track them down, and would levitate them and fly back to Draco with them. He would have burned them himself, but it was easier to just let Draco do it than to cast multiple spells.

Draco caught one and tried using a permanent sticking charm to stick a male vampire on a high branch in a tree. The vampire was, thankfully, the last one left, because it finally figured out a way to attack them. When Draco left him stuck there, the vampire just slashed at the branch with his arm, breaking it and the closest branches. While it was running away, it grabbed a large piece of wood stuck to its shirt and was about to throw it to the ground, but threw it instead at Draco, probably expecting nothing more than annoying him.

Draco was being too confident sitting up there, and didn't see it coming. The piece of wood drove into Draco's leg, making him scream out in pain. The vampire stopped in astonishment. It thought that the beings killing them were all powerful. They seemed like Gods flying over them and picking them out as if for sport. All they had to do was throw something at them? Were they simple humans?

With desperation, the vampire clawed at the nearest tree, making a flurry of small wooden stakes. It threw them all rapidly at Draco with deadly precision and speed. Draco tried to get out of the way and cast something, but he was in pain already and the vampire was fast. Three more stakes all flew straight for his heart, but he managed to roll and have them all spear the same injured leg. This time he almost lost his grip on his broom.

Harry had heard the first scream and rocketed over to Draco. When he heard the whistling sounds of projectiles, he quickly cast shield charms over both of them. He had to do the quickest spell work he'd ever done to do it all in time. He had to cast the shields, levitate Draco back on his broom, and then stop the vampire that decided that since the things it was throwing were being stopped by a shield, it would jump at them and try to kill them with his hands.

It was all so quick that there were still a lot of pieces of wood flying around them that had bounced off the shields when the vampire jumped. With reflexes quicker than any human should have, Harry summoned all of the wood pieces a few feet in front of them, while lighting them on fire. What happened was that they all converged right on top of the lunging vampire. It's face was a gruesome visage of hate when the burning wood stopped him in his path, and then burned him alive.

After they watched the last of the ashes fly away in the wind, Harry turned towards Draco with an unreadable expression on his face. He silently summoned all of the splinters off of Draco's leg, not caring about the cries of pain that he got from the blond as well as a few curses. He spoke only to heal his leg. He wasn't good enough with healing spells to do them silently...

"_Sana cutis,_" He repeated a few times, holding his wand in a horizontal position, slowly dragging it an inch from Draco's leg.

He then turned his broom around and started flying home. Draco tried to talk to him, but Harry wasn't responding.

"Hey. Hey, Potter," Draco repeated.

"Pootteeeerr," Draco whined. He hated being ignored. "I'm sorry, alright, what do you want me to say?" he sighed. "Faster than I thought they'd be..." he mumbled. He looked back towards Harry, who was still staring straight ahead. He pouted, he really hated being ignored.

"When we get home, you're going to write happened, and what you did wrong," Harry finally said.

Draco looked at him a little annoyed. "You want me to write an essay? What are you my bloody professor?"

"It's called a fucking field report, you dumb git," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Fine. Hey isn't it your job? And what are you going to be doing?" Draco asked.

"Well, I would, but I didn't do anything wrong, so I can't answer that question," Harry smirked. "I'm just going to go and take a walk I think. I'm gonna go see what those wolves were. They didn't look normal. I thought they were just werewolves, but now that I look at it closely, the moon's not _quite_ full," he contemplated.

"Hmm. I think you might be right," Draco said. "I also think I might not care. Alright, you go have fun. Bring back some dinner, yeah?"

"Malfoy, you can cook for yourself," Harry said dismissively.

"I am a Malfoy! A Malfoy never cooks for themselves. They have lesser beings cook for them. We _should_ get a house-elf but you're being a bloody G_ryffindor _and ..."

Harry had stopped listening after the first sentence. After only a day, he learned to tune out anything about his family. "Oh and remember to get some salve for those injuries. I only healed the skin, the muscles are still injured," he cut off whatever Draco was saying.

They arrived and Draco quickly went in, grumbling.

Harry decided to go walking on foot, hopefully he'd see some of the tracks that the wolves left.

He didn't want to go back inside because he'd just end up thinking about that girl from the dinner at the Cullens a few days ago. He had been thinking of her more and more. He shouldn't have traded phone numbers with her, he decided. He had a girlfriend and shouldn't be doing this.

He couldn't help it though, the girl had attracted him almost immediately.

The Cullens had been very kind to him, and all of their women were beautiful. They even had a girl that would have been the most beautiful girl he'd have ever seen as a human. As a vampire, she was devastating. However, hers seemed a very cold beauty. Ice princess was a very fitting name for her, much more than some of the Slytherin girls that got that title.

The worst part, was that even that kind of beauty didn't seem to affect him. The native girl however, left him breathless. She had short hair, very short hair for a girl. A few inches long at most. It was also seemed like it had been hacked off in a fury. It wasn't like Alice, who had a perfect pixie cut. Leah's had been _wild_. Everything about her seemed wild. From the way she looked like she had just rolled around in dirt with leaves in her hair, to the way she wore no bra with her nipples sticking out, to the_ unrestrained passion_ in her eye whenever their eyes met. She must be very passionate about everything.

When they shook hands, her hand was scolding hot. Everything about her seemed to be wild and hot. When she went to the kitchen to help with dinner, he _was_ a bit tired of the attention and wanted to get away, but he also wanted to be with her more. He walked behind her and noticed that she wasn't wearing underwear either. The girl was trying to kill him.

He quickly shook himself out of that line of thought. The point was that after everything, he wanted to keep in contact with her, because he was so attracted to her, so he immediately accepted to trade phone numbers. Now he felt guilty because he shouldn't be trying to get with her.

It wouldn't be good to get distracted. Plus Ginny, was his afterthought.

* * *

Leah was determined. She was going to go and check that Harry was home - she still hadn't seen his house - and make sure he was alright. Yes, he was her imprint, and yes, she loved him and didn't want to intrude on his privacy if he didn't want that, but right now was not the time to be delicate like that. Love him or not, she wasn't the kind of girl to lay down to his demands, she tried blaming the imprinting, but she had a feeling it was something else.

She was about a minute away from the farthest place she tracked him, when she smelt his beautiful scent. Even in these heavily wooded areas, she could easily make out his woodsy scent. It had woods that she had never even smelled before. She took a minute to lay down and just bask in his smell. Just thinking of him took all her worries away. She forgot about Sam and the packs and the vampires and just thought about Harry. She sprung her eyes open and started walking and following the smell. God, it felt good to her. She felt so completely relaxed. The scent was very strong and recent. She was going to see her imprint soon and everything was going to be perfect. Her_ Imprint_. She'd never get tired of that.

She walked through a thick set of bushes, parting them with her hands, to see a little clearing barely a few feet wide. In an eerie move that reminded her of a horror movie, both her and Harry came out at the exact same time, out of two particularly thick set of bushes.

She saw his face change to complete fright. He'd seen her. By the look on his face he thought she was going to kill him. She didn't know how to make a multi-ton monster seem less threatening, but she didn't want to scare him. She hated herself right now. Poor Harry couldn't even speak, that's how frightened he was.

Harry's eyes were wide and frightened when he all of the sudden made a little yelping noise and covered his eyes. She almost giggled, that's not a normal reaction for when you think you're going to die. Her imprint was a bit of a wuss, she'd have to wear the trousers. She mentally cackled at that. She was wondering what to do next when she heard him. "Um. Leah?" She could see him kind of peek through his fingers a bit.

"How'd he know it was me?" she wondered curiously and then heard herself murmur it. Then she froze. She heard herself speak. Everything hit her then. She had completely relaxed, she walked here, she pushed the bushes with her hands... She phased back without thinking.

That meant...

She looked down and screamed "Ahhh! Close your eyes! Close your eyes!" She was completely naked. She brought up one arm to cover her breasts and the other she tried to cover her crotch.

"Ah! They're closed! They're closed!" Harry screamed back and snapped his hands closed.

They both screamed again.

Harry finally seemed to get over the shock of seeing her butt naked near his house, and quickly took his shirt off to give it to her.

"Are you- Why are you stripping as well?" Leah asked astonished. She didn't think that Harry was a playboy, but maybe he wanted to have sex already? He probably thought she was naked and looking for the first guy to fuck her. She'd have to explain to him that she wasn't a whore. There would be time after the sex, she decided.

"I'm just going to give you my shirt, here," he handed it to her.

"Oh, well thank you," she said meekly. She was relieved he didn't think she was a whore. She was still a tiny bit disappointed about no sex. She was also disappointed to see that he had another shirt underneath the one he gave her... she could have sworn he was only wearing one, it was like another had just appeared underneath the other. Besides, who wears two exactly identical shirt right over each other. It figured her imprint was just as weird as she was.

The shirt that he gave her came down almost to the middle of her thighs so she had to keep the edges down for none of her private parts to be visible. She thought about not-so-accidentally flashing him her butt a little, but she wouldn't be able to stop herself from checking to see if he liked it. She knew it would give her away. Plus, she'd already actually-accidentally showed him all of her front. She had to save a little bit, else she'd lose that mysterious aura. She snorted at her own delusions, but was just a little bit giddy to be feeling like a girl for once after the last few years.

Leah found out one more thing about her imprint that she absolutely loved. He didn't ask many questions when there was no need. He wasn't overly emotional, or dramatic. He just asked her if she was alright, and if she was in any kind of trouble. She laughed and told him no that everything was fine. He must have heard her laughing and thought it was just a crazy story, or who knows what he must have thought, but he just laughed and told her that if she needed anything, he'd help. Then, after that, he asked her if she wanted a ride home and that was it.

The imprinting had definitely left her biased for anything he did, but right then she knew she would've liked him with or without the imprint. There was no demanding questions, no pity in his eyes, nothing that she'd see – and hated – daily. He'd just laughed a little laugh at the situation and nonchalantly went to fix it.

He gave her one last amused smile and took out his phone to warn his friend she'd be coming in half naked.

"Malfoy, Leah's coming over, I found her in the woods. There was an... um... accident so I have to get her some clean clothes when we get there," he said, trying to hide the fact that any clothes would do by saying _clean_ clothes. That was nice of him. "Stay in your room while she comes in, I don't think she wanted either of us to see it, but better me than both, I guess," he rambled a bit on the phone.

Draco was silent for a few seconds.

"Get what I'm asking?" Harry said in a bit more forceful tone than was necessary, much to her confusion.

Leah could hear everything that was said even though Harry had discreetly walked away a few steps. He was quite clever about it, she thought. He started pacing and stopped at the farthest point from her, then started pacing again and repeated the cycle. "Yeah... stay in my room," Draco said like if it was the most stupidly obvious thing. Which to her, it was.

Harry sighed loudly.

"OH! Hide the stuff. Got it. Sorry mate," Draco said. She pictured his face being sheepish.

"Yes! Thank you," Harry said relieved. Leah watched on curiously. That sounded ominous. She really hoped he wasn't a serial killer. Maybe it was just a lot of weird kinky sex toys and stuff. She'd rather have that, than him being a murderer. Hell, she could probably get into the other stuff. She shook her head to get her mind out of the gutter.

He had finished his conversation then and turned to her. She got a mental image of him in an all leather black suit with a whip at his side. The urge to get on all fours almost overcame her. It was probably the wolf in her, she told herself. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands. His voice brought her out of the dirty road her mind was traveling. He had a very nice voice, it seemed oddly old for a twenty three year old.

"Alright, we're pretty close to my house. I'll get you some warm clothes and a hot drink. You must be freezing." He said sympathetically. She was warmed by the care. He grabbed her hand to lead her and she thought she would melt. "Oh, or maybe not. Your hand is burning," he said smiling.

She smiled happily back at him and docilely followed him. Then she was ashamed of herself. She did not follow anyone, and when she did, she was not docile. She settled for at least talking some. "So what were you doing out here?" she asked.

"Oh, I saw some animal tracks. They were fairly large, so I thought I'd try to track it. It seemed like fun," he smiled happily.

She gaped at him. "Do you- Are you crazy!" she shouted. "Do you want to be killed? You know there's been sightings of giant bears here," she tried to dissuade him of this ridiculous path he was on.

He laughed merrily "Yeah I heard of it. That's what I'm trying to find actually. I really want to see one of them," he smiled dreamily.

It was official. She was in love with a suicidal person. Fuck Bella, she's got nothing on her imprint. Jacob and Edward joked that she always found trouble, but Leah was pretty sure that she didn't find it on purpose. She was still to blame of course, but she didn't go looking for it at least. Her imprint was completely insane, she might not tell him about vampires then or he might think it's fun to feel what it's like to be bitten. Now she was scared he might want to get turned to see what it felt like. She wasn't going to let him out of her sight again.

"Harry, listen to me please, don't go looking for them again. It's dangerous. You could get hurt, or killed." She was depressing herself.

"Don't worry I'll be fine," he laughed. Stupid male arrogance. Someday, when they were married, she was going to show him how strong and dangerous she was, and she'd get rid of all those faults males have that seemed to plague her pack. "Besides, are you really one to be talking here? You're alone like half an hour from your house. Starkers," he looked at her pointedly.

Well, she thought, he had her there. There was no way to explain that. So she shut her mouth and decided to fight him on this another day. She cheered herself up by focusing on the fact that she was going to finally see his house. That and he was still holding her hand. Of course, she didn't know that it was only so that she could get through the wards; but if she knew, she'd probably be happier with the blissful ignorance.

They silently made their way up to his house. "Nice house," she said. And it was. Especially compared to her own shabby house. It was still a bit lower class than the Cullen's futuristic house, but she'd happily live here. That would be her new goal. Kill his girlfriend, kill some vampires and move in with him. Then her life would be complete. If Bella was one of the vampires, that'd be icing on the cake, but she found herself very reluctantly warming up to her. A small bit.

"Thanks. It's just what the ministry gave us," he said.

"Ministry?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Err... The government. Yeah, we call it ministry, back in England," she didn't know anything about British politics so she just nodded as if understanding.

She did, however, realize that she had no idea what he did for work. Harry had avoided the question neatly when they had the dinner at the Cullens, and after her announcement of the imprinting, they barely even bothered to check anything out about Harry. It was like they forgot all about anything weird that he might have said.

She was going to ask him, when he cut her off "I'm gonna go get the clothes, two seconds," he said, holding up two fingers and hurrying upstairs. She was left standing in the middle of the kitchen. She looked around, everything looked normal enough. The only thing she noticed was that there was a lot of appliances missing. Thanks to her enhanced vision, she could see a very, very fine layer of dust that humans wouldn't be able to see. There were a few clean spots that looked like they had been occupied very, very recently. Like right before Harry called Malfoy to and had him hide the stuff.

What she really couldn't figure out was why they would hide a _toaster_ of all things.

She could see break crumbs around the toaster shaped empty space. She also saw a few other empty spots, but she didn't bother trying to figure out what kind of appliances they were. The only thing that she could think of was that they were petty thieves who went around stealing toasters. That was actually quite hilarious to her. She pictured them making James Bonds type moves, with the same accents, while stealing toasters and kettles from an old ladies.

Harry walked down when she was controlling her laughter and smiled watching her. He tried to act offended that she was laughing at his house, but she could tell he was too easy going for that.

He handed her the clothes, they smelled wonderfully like him. She liked that. He was a little taller than her, but they were about the same width so they would fit her fairly well. She tried not to get too insecure about that.

"I err, didn't know if you wanted underwear... I only have boxers but... so, um..." Harry stammered. He was red by the time he finished.

Leah grinned. She loved that he was uncomfortable. After seeing men running around naked without the smallest ounce of shame, this was very refreshing.

"Why? Do you mind me wearing your clothes with no underwear?" she asked with a small smile on her lips, too excited about flirting for the first time in so long to remember he had a girlfriend.

Harry gulped. Her smile widened. "Relax, I'm just kidding. But yeah, I'll take them."

"Okay," Harry squeaked out. She took the clothes from him and proceeded to put them on in front of him. With the reactions she was getting from him, she couldn't help herself, she even dressed a lot slower than she normally would. Nothing was shown again, she was careful to only hint, but not show. She was counting on the glimpse in the woods being too short and dark to see anything.

He had watched her discreetly, she noticed, while on the guise of making some hot chocolate. It was especially obvious when he brought out the ingredients and then going over to her when she was done, forgetting about the food completely.

As much as she wanted to spend all day with him in his clothes, or out of them, she knew she should go home soon. She had left abruptly and didn't check in with Jake, even though he hadn't done anything.

"I should probably get home soon, they're probably worried about me..." Leah said regretfully.

"Right. I'll take you home?" he said, asking if that's what she wanted.

"Thank you," she smiled.

"Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed, and got a very infectious grin on his face that made him appear ten years younger. She automatically smiled at his smile. "Want to drive?" he asked.

Now her smile was face splitting. This almost made up for not having sex. She whooped and grabbed his hand, dragging him out the door laughing. "Hey, hey, let me get the keys," he said smiling.

"Hurry up! Chop chop!" she pushed him back inside. He laughed loudly at her enthusiasm.

The drive there was amazing for Leah. When she first got in, she sat there not touching anything, just staring at all the little buttons and gadgets. Harry didn't rush her at all. He just watched her contentedly. He still watched her when all she did was run her hands over the leather seats, then gear stick, and almost everything else afterward. It was his laugh when she brought down the visors to look at that too, that brought her out of it. She blushed and quickly put the keys in.

At first she was very careful with the car. She stopped for the full three seconds at every stop sign, and put turn signals on every turn and pretty much drove like her grandmother. Harry laughed at her again and pushed down hard on the knee that was on the gas pedal. The car's engine revved loudly and shot forward alarmingly fast.

Leah had to swerve out of the way of a light post and slam on the breaks to go back to the speed she was at. Harry had whooped the entire swerving and skidding. She turned to him like he was crazy. He just looked at her with a wide smile and said "Go faster, man! Faster!"

She tried to be mad at him. She really did. She tried to sneer at him, but it came out in a dreamy smile. He loved speed. She would take him on her back one day as a wolf. She was by far the fastest, hopefully that would scare him a bit. Or she could try to scare him now... "Fine, you want faster... I'll fucking give you faster," she murmured out the last part looking ahead and putting her hand on the shift.

The car rocketed forward as she floored the gas and went as fast as she could the entire way to her house, fish-tailing across wide turns, leaving burn marks on every stop and go. His cheers got louder and louder.

Her house came up only ten minutes after she left his house. It should have been a half hour drive. As much fun as they had, she regretted that they didn't get to talk at all the whole time. It would've been nice to talk to him and get closer to him in a nice soft drive. She did however remember a very good opportunity happening the next day.

They took a few seconds to calm themselves, since they were both still breathing hard from the excitement.

"Hey, um. I know you're probably curious about why you found me naked in the woods and stuff..." she paused for a second, trying to gather her courage. "Well, it's really nice that you didn't try to pry or anything, but I should probably explain a bit."

He nodded looking curious, and a bit hopeful.

"It's kind of a really really long story and has to deal a lot with my family... so do you think you can come over tomorrow? The tribe is having a bonfire and they usually tell stories about our tribes. They're pretty interesting..." she said a bit self consciously. She was always very proud of being Quileute, but British seemed really refined to her.

"I'm sure they're interesting. I'd love to hear them," he assured her. "Um, what about Malfoy? Can he come as well?" he asked.

"Err.." Leah didn't know how to tell him that his friend could _not _in fact, come. How could she tell him all these things and not let him talk to anyone about them? A lot of people in Sam's pack went through the same things. Sam won't let anyone know but an imprint, that was one of the many things she used to be bitter about. The fact that she wasn't even important enough to know the truth of why she was left on the side like the Thursday garbage. "I'm not really supposed to invite anyone else but you..." she said awkwardly. She hated this, she hoped that Harry wouldn't listen to her and bring whoever the hell he wanted.

"Oh? Why only me?" Harry asked confused. "Did he offend someone at the dinner yesterday? I know he's a bit of a git, but-"

"No! No, that's not it. He didn't do anything wrong," she said wringing her hands. "I wish he could come, but I can't tell you why until tomorrow... ugh," she said miserably.

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault," he said soothingly, even if he was a bit alarmed, "I know it's not by choice."

She nodded thankfully, but she could tell that he probably wouldn't go. "I'll talk to Malfoy and see if he's okay with it. If I'm going to ditch him, I'll at least make sure he's okay with it first," he said firmly.

The loyalty he had was astounding to her. Anyone could tell that he and Malfoy weren't _really_ friends, but they had some kind of business there together. It was more like they were friends, but didn't want to be unless necessary. She knew Harry would do anything for his friend.

That her imprint could be so perfect gave her the resolve to do what she did next. "You know what? Fuck Sam. You bring Malfoy. I'll deal with Sam," she said with a hardened face.

"What? No, I don't want you to get in trouble," Harry said worriedly.

"No, no. I want to do this. They try to just... control everything. I'm sick of it. I should've stood up to this a long time ago. You're helping here, not getting me in trouble," she said emphatically. "Thank you, Harry. Please bring your friend," she said with finality.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Her courage slightly faltered a bit, but she looked in his eyes again and what she saw there gave her more courage than she'd ever had. She saw admiration.

"Yes," she nodded once with a small smile.

"Thank you," he said simply, and gave her hand a squeeze.

She smiled brightly at him. "So you're coming?"

He laughed. "Yes. You'll explain everything there, yeah?" he asked. "You're making it seem like you have a huge dark secret," he smiled jokingly.

"You have no idea." She said solemnly. She opened the door to get out before she could say anything else. Harry got out as well and walked around to her side so that he could drive. She stopped him before he got in.

"Listen, thank you for the ride and the clothes and everything. I'll give them back to you tomorrow." Before she thought what she was doing, she kissed him on the cheek. They both stared at each other with wide eyes in surprise. She managed to squeak out a quick "Goodnight," and scurried inside her house.

* * *

Seth had been having a pretty bad day. Usually, he wasn't bothered by much, he was happy with food, porn and shelter. That's basically all a young werewolf without an imprint needs, in his opinion. Today though, had been a weird day. It all started out with his sister getting home very early in the morning and falling dead asleep, not listening to him saying that she had to go on patrol. He had covered her last three shifts now.

To be fair, she had taken dozens of his shifts before. Before her imprint had come, she never had anything to do. He knew her days consisted of mostly angry brooding and whatever tasks she had to do for the day. He hadn't noticed until now, how much she did for them. Since she would always be so mean in general, no one noticed how much she did without complaining.

In the morning, he had gone down to the kitchen, wanting the breakfast that he had every morning. He asked his mom what happened to breakfast. She looked at him funny "Err. Do you want me to make something? I haven't made breakfast in years... Your sister usually makes it. Where is she by the way?"

"I don't know. She got in a fight with Sam last night so she's probably running around breaking trees or something," he said lightly.

"Yeah probably," his mom said with a chuckle, but he could see a little bit of sadness in her eyes. Unlike their father, she'd never quite forgiven Sam for breaking her daughter's heart. She hated seeing her daughter in pain.

"Don't worry mom, I think we might be having our old Leah back soon. She'll tell you about it later, I think."

That's when Leah came in from outside. She was wearing someone else's clothes. Seth could smell Harry on her, so he grinned at her. She gave him a tiny smile back, showing Harry was safe. Their mother, however didn't know that.

"Leah, you shouldn't stay out all night. We were worried about you," Sue said, trying to sound stern. "And whose clothes are those?" she asked noticing the slightly too big clothes.

"Mom, I heard you guys just talking. You didn't even know I was out," she said rolling her eyes. "Oh and I flashed a guy real quick on the road for some clothes," she smirked. "I thought it was a fair trade."

"Leah!" his mom said annoyed. If she wasn't so used to her daughter's attitude, she would've been shocked.

"Whatever," Leah grumbled. "I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up."

"Wait, wait-" Seth tried to ask about patrols.

"I said don't wake me up," Leah shouted over him and sprinted up the stairs.

That was how his morning went. It wasn't too bad, he mused, at least his sister was happier. The problem came when he called Jake to try to determine patrols, and he wasn't answering. That's when he also noticed that his sister was the one that always told him what to do. Ever since Jake imprinted on Nessie, he'd been a lot less active in the job. It was always up to Leah to be the bitch and tell everyone what to do. He'd never appreciated that.

His only option was to go to Sam and coordinate with him, but he hated talking to Sam. If there was one way he was nice to his sister, was by hating Sam. Everyone forgave Sam once they saw how bitchy Leah was, but Seth never did. Everyone called her bitter, but no one bothered anymore with why she was bitter. He understood what Sam went through, but he would never be nice to someone that his sister hated. He had always looked up to her and secretly did everything she suggested. He had loved the same shows as her, liked the same books as her, and hated the same people as her. He also thought about how he would feel if she was nice to someone that broke his heart, it was painful to even think about.

Therefor it was no surprise that he still disliked going to talk to Sam, even if Leah didn't hate him anymore. He tried to get in and out as quickly as he could, but of course, Sam wouldn't have that. Sam found three different ways to piss Seth off in that one conversation. First he complained about how Jacob's pack was unavailable and that they needed to get their shit together; Seth couldn't disagree much, but why Sam was telling him this, he had no idea. And it wasn't just that, that pissed him off, it was how he talked about Leah and her imprint. It very much sounded like jealousy, and that more than anything made him mad. Before he could dwell on that too much, however, he was told that Sam had a new member in their pack. A girl werewolf. A fourteen year old girl named May, and Leah was 'expected' to go and help her get through being a girl werewolf and what that entailed. He had been embarrassed when he understood what he meant. What confused him most was that Sam didn't look embarrassed at all, or relieved. Then it hit him, Sam didn't want to tell the girl what Leah had found out. That she couldn't get pregnant.

Seth seethed. What a coward, Seth thought.

The last thing was that Sam had tried to use an alpha command to make him go wake Leah up and then go patrol. While he wasn't the alpha of his pack, an alpha was still an alpha, and had some power over him. It wasn't the absolute power his own alpha had, it was more like a very strong compulsion. It was very hard to disobey. He had even walked all the way to his house before he had been able to break the command that was pushing him. His head was pounding by the time he broke the command to wake up his sister. It hurt too much to try again, so he decided to just go and patrol like Sam told him to. If he had been a beta like his sister, it would have been easier for him to ignore multiple commands, but he wasn't.

That was why he was not a happy camper when he got back home.

The bad news just kept coming though.

His sister was coming down the stairs just as he came in. She was rubbing her eyes as if she just woke up. He was very curious about what happened the night before.

"So sis, gonna tell me what happened?" Seth asked happily.

She looked up at him after a great big yawn. "Yeah, alright. Harry caught me naked in the woods," she said and then opened the fridge.

Seth nodded absently and then his mind caught up with him. His eyes bugged out and he stared at his sister. "What? He didn't try anything did he? I'll kick his ass all the way to England," he declared heroically. Well, in his opinion anyways.

Apparently only his though. Leah looked at him with a mocking caring opinion. "Oh Seth," she said sympathetically. It was a lie, she had no sympathy. "You touch him, and I'll kick your ass all the way to England."

"Leahhhh," Seth whined. It never worked before, but she made him feel like such a little kid. He wasn't. He was over six feet!

"Stop whining. He didn't try anything, unfortunately."

Seth made a face. He didn't want to think about that. It was going to be hell phasing with her once she and her imprint were like Sam and Emily. Although he couldn't see his sister that sickeningly lovey though. He was only able to stand her memories of sex with Sam because they were so painful that all he could focus on was the pain.

"That's good. Oh!" he remembered something. "We have that bonfire tomorrow, did you remember to invite Harry so we can tell him everything?" he asked, excited for Harry to find everything out. He couldn't wait to talk to his sister's imprint. They were going to be awesome friends. Plus he might have English girls that he knows.

"Yeah. His friend's coming too," Seth widened his eyes at that and was about to ask her how the hell she forgot the rules when she interrupted him. "And I don't give a shit what the rules are. He's coming."

Seth gawked at his sister. It was times like this that he admired the hell out of her. She didn't take shit from anyone and did what she wanted. The few times that he had serious problems, Leah solved them almost pitifully easily.

He remembered once, there was a high school senior that kept picking on him and taking his lunch money. The guy would get the money from him at the beginning of the day, when they got off the bus, and Seth would stay hungry for the day.

He asked Leah for help and she told him to stand up for himself first, and if he got his ass kicked she'd step in. The next day, he said no to the bully and was able to get away because there was a teacher near him. He was able to buy lunch that day, but when he sat down with his friends, the bully came up to him with his friends. He had one of the other seniors hold Seth's shoulders down to not look too conspicuous while the bully took Seth's tray and left. He tried getting up when they were leaving, but got an elbow on his kidney for his attempt.

Apparently Leah was watching though, because ten seconds later, she stepped in front of the guys. In a loud clear voice that rang throughout the cafeteria, she said, "hello, I think there's a problem here. I see that you've taken my brother's lunch without his permission." She said this all in a very nonchalant voice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw not only all of the students in the cafeteria watching, but the teachers going towards them.

He thought he figured out her plan. He also thought the other guys figured the same thing. He thought that she was attracting the teachers so that they could fix it and give them detentions in front of everyone. The bullies smiled and started saying, "we would do no such thing, he offered it to u-" That's as far as he got. Seth had seriously underestimated his sister.

While the senior had been speaking, she had taken an apple of the tray and bit into it. She was even nodding along while he was speaking. But when he said "u-", she suddenly shoved the whole apple into the guy's mouth, making him choke and startling the other seniors. She took that time to grab the chocolate milk and smash it over another guy's head. When she saw the other guys finally react and try to grab her, she flailed away and tackled the guy that was still choking on the apple. Her tackle did manage to dislodge the apple, but Seth would've preferred the apple to what she did next. She scratched, bit and screamed. He even saw one of the guys that tried to bring her off the bully flinch back holding his arm, bleeding from a scratch.

The fight was finally broken up by the teachers. Thankfully, Leah didn't try to fight them. She stopped flailing and calmly got off the boy who was now covered in scratches and bruises. She smoothed down her clothes and said in an eerily calm voice, "that was your warning." And then walked off with the teachers for her week detention with her head held high. The guy had to be helped out by his friends. It was probably the scariest thing that Seth had ever seen.

Nobody messed with him for the rest of the year, until she graduated. Everyone was scared shitless of her. It wasn't even the actual fight that everyone was in awe of, but the suddenness and viciousness of the attack.

She barely ever helped him, but when she did, she more than made up for it.

He loved being her brother.

"Oh, Seth," he was brought back to the present by her voice from the door. "I'm going to Harry's. Tell Sam and the elders that Draco is coming," and she closed the door.

He hated being her brother.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Draco was confused. He was also a bit disgusted. The reason? Draco was shopping at the grocery store. Harry had asked him to pick something up to bring to a bonfire that was happening with the dark people from that dinner with the pale people.

Yeah, that made sense to Draco.

He had stepped into the grocery store and found rows and rows of shelves, all filled with what he assumed was food. Where did the muggles get so much food?

On principle, he decided not to get anything that came in boxes. Food in boxes didn't seem like a good idea to him. He walked around for about half an hour, trying to see something he could get. Everything was either in boxes or uncooked.

He had no plans to cook himself, and Potter would probably just bitch and send him back. He sighed again until he saw a sign that said bakery. Fudge was simple enough for muggles to sell already made, right? He decided to try that.

Another sign stopped him.

He was getting thirsty so he decided to buy a soda at a small fast food restaurant that was imbedded inside the grocery store. There was a line open with a very large lady that had a very small uniform shirt and a visor hat on with the restaurant's name on it. She also looked about three times the size of Longbottom when he was still fat.

He hesitantly walked up to her, making sure to leave enough space between them so that she couldn't reach for him and try to eat him.

She didn't notice him. Draco coughed to get her attention. The lady breathed a bit louder.

Finally on the third cough the lady looked up, not greeting him.

"Hullo. May I have a coke?" he asked slowly for the muggles to understand. He knew their brains were inferior.

"Size?" the lady asked in a deep voice, looking down at the machine again. When he didn't respond she looked up and stared at him, breathing loudly through her nose.

"Normal sized."

"You mean medium?" she asked.

"Yes," he bit out.

He saw her poke the screen for some reason. She did that for about ten seconds before she finally looked up again. How retarded was this lady? "One dollars and forty nine cents."

She lifted an arm to get his money. To Draco, it looked like she had two different upper arms separated by a layer of skin, except the lower of the two looked to be all fat and three times the size of the other.

Through sheer will, he didn't make a face, but he still didn't take his eyes off of the spare body part hanging off her arm.

He counted out the money, he was proud of remembering the coins, and quickly snatched his arm back after dropping the money in her hand.

She handed him a large empty plastic cup.

He looked at it, confused. Surely muggles couldn't be _that_ slow.

"There's no drink in this," Draco said obviously, for the benefit of the lady.

The lady gave him an unimpressed stare. She just pointed to a black box with a bunch of little levers and buttons.

He walked over to it and stared at it, having no idea what to do. When he looked back at the lady, he found she was staring at the screen, not paying attention to him. He debated on yelling at her, until a little girl came up to him.

"You look lost. Do you want help?" she asked.

He had to admit, she was cute for a muggle child. And he was in no position to say no, no matter how much he wanted to.

"Yes," he said. She stared back at him expectantly, crossing her little arms. "Please?"

"Okay!" she grinned, showing off two missing teeth. "You push the lever with your cup," she said simply.

Draco looked at the machine and then back at her. "Which one?"

"Well, what drink do ya want?" she asked exasperated, throwing up her little arms in the air.

"Coke," Draco said, hoping she knew what she was doing.

"Um..." she said for about ten seconds, looking at the machine. Then she grinned and pointed to the one all the way to the left. "That one!"

"Are you sure?" Draco asked skeptically.

"Yes," she said glaring at him. "I learned how to read _last year,_ thank you very much," adding a little stomp of her foot for effect.

"Okay okay, keep your panties on," he said.

The little girl frowned at him, hopefully not about to yell what he said. He decided to just do what she said, so he took the cup and aimed it at the lever, then made a stabbing motion with the bottom of the cup pointed straight at himself, and the opening pointing toward the lever.

The little girl's eyes got wide when he started doing that, but she didn't say anything in time. The spray of the soda hit the side of the cup instead of the opening, and bounced off, hitting both him and the little girl. The girl shrieked, attracting the attention of everyone within thirty feet of them.

When he let go of the cup and looked at his ruined clothing and the girl that tricked him, the little girl glared at him furiously and kicked him in the shin, then promptly ran off to whine to her mother, who watched it all amused.

That's when Draco decided that Potter could get his own food to bring, and left the cup there, walking off.

On his way out he saw the fat lady look at him and give a snort that sounded astoundingly like a pig. "Retard," she said.

Draco _hated_ muggles.

* * *

Leah was extremely nervous. She was sitting on one of the logs around the fire, just staring at the flames in silent contemplation. This was the day they were telling Harry about the imprint. She cursed herself for telling him so soon, she should have spent more time with him and befriended him first. At least then it'd be a friend who had imprinted on you, not a stranger.

She tried doing the same thing she did when she wanted to hide thoughts from her pack, she repeatedly and single-mindedly recited the worst songs she heard lately, making sure to lose herself in criticizing them. This worked until she felt a presence in front of her.

She looked up to see Sam's angry visage. It wasn't that new to her, she usually made him angry one way or another.

"What?" Leah asked, bored already with whatever problems he had with her.

"Leah. You know the rules. No one but imprints and their family can come to our bonfires. You've known the rules for a long time now. Seth informed me that you invited your imprint _and_ his friend. That's against the rules. He's not allowed to come. Call your imprint and tell him to come alone. Tell him our rules say only him. Neither you nor him are above the rules"

Despite herself, Leah was impressed by how many times Sam managed to say rules in that one rant. She heard it five times. In fact, she had stopped paying attention to what he was saying at the second one and just started counting them. She even did a mental little cheer every time he said it, flipping a little scoreboard in her mind. She had even taken to trying to guess the next time, she liked the suspense.

"What?" she asked, once she realized he had stopped talking.

"Call your imprint and tell him he can't bring his friend," he repeated.

"No," Leah said and walked off. She wanted to look back and look at his face to see it properly indignant, but she decided that wouldn't be cool, so she just walked over to Seth and Jake.

"'Sup guys," she greeted.

"Nothing. When's your boy toy getting here?" Seth asked, giving her a playful shoulder bump.

Leah gave him a not so playful shoulder bump back, shoving him off the log.

"I don't know. They'll be here soon I guess," Leah said, shrugging, trying to hide her nervousness.

"They?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, She decided to tell him to invite his friend," Seth said from the floor, which he didn't bother getting up from. In fact, he looked quite comfortable there.

"Ooh please tell me Sam hasn't found out yet," Jacob said, looking excited. "I wanna see his reaction."

Childish moron.

"Yes. I ignored him mostly," Leah said still thinking about Harry.

They were interrupted by Billy. "Leah, Sam tells me you invited someone that wasn't your imprint?" Sam was standing behind him nodding along. Leah snickered at the thought of him tattling on her.

"Yeah, he's bringing the other guy from England," she said, only paying a little bit more attention now.

"Leah. You know the rules," Billy said in disapproval. Apparently, that was the word of the day or something.

"Yeah, but the rules say direct family can know. He's an orphan, so he needs someone. Usually we imprint on people here, and they all know each other, so they have people to talk to about this. Harry knows no one here and has no one to talk to about it that he trusts," she said, making up reasons on the spot. "If you don't tell his friend as well, he'll find someone else to confide in and they won't believe him and may even try to investigate."

Billy seemed to consider that. She was actually impressed by how much sense the garbage that spilled from her mouth made. She didn't mind annoying people to get her way, but this seemed easier.

"You're right. I'll talk to the rest of the elders to tell them the situation," Billy said, then smiled at Leah, patting her on the shoulder.

She would have to find some way to annoy Billy later. That wasn't nearly as satisfying a way to get what she wanted. Although seeing Sam's face when Billy had agreed might have been worth it.

They all stopped for a second when they heard a car with the engine revving extremely loudly. Leah then recognized Harry's car turning. He must have had the gas all the way to the floor. What made her curious was the fact that it wasn't going more than thirty miles an hour. Fairly slow.

She curiously watched as it stopped really fast. She looked around to see everyone at the bonfire. Some of them had confused looks on their faces, but most of them just stared at the car with what understood was complete awe. She was sure she had the same look when she first saw it.

It was still a bit away from the patch of grass where all the other cars were. She tried pointing to the cars to signal where she should park, but considering they probably couldn't see her, she put her arms down.

"What is Harry doing?" she asked out loud.

"_That_ is Harry's car?" Paul asked loudly. Leah nodded smugly. "Trade me imprints!" he said, holding out Rachel, who slapped him upside the head.

Leah was still watching the car that was just sitting there, when she saw Harry come out the passengers seat, laughing loudly. He walked over to the other side and opened the door, telling Draco to get out.

He got in and smoothly pulled in next to Leah's car, leaving Draco to walk, and making hers seem like a horse wagon by comparison.

"Hey guys!" he said cheerfully when he walked up. He saw her and came up beside her. She tried not to let that get to her head. "Thanks for inviting me, Leah," he smiled at her.

She smiled brightly, still a bit nervous. "My pleasure," she noticed everyone staring at her with wide eyes. Especially the people who weren't at the dinner. They weren't as disbelieving as the people at the Cullens, instead they were watching raptly, as if expecting a big show. A happy Leah probably was a big show to them.

She tried divert attention. "Is there something wrong with your car? It sounded extremely loud."

Harry snickered. "No, Malfoy doesn't know how to drive with gears, but he's too much of a stubborn git to give up and let me drive," he said rolling his eyes.

Jacob gasped. "He didn't!"

Harry grinned "So he drove all the way here on first gear."

Leah widened her eyes. Why the hell would Harry endanger himself like that, letting Malfoy drive even though he couldn't? Jacob cut her off before she could properly nag like a normal girl.

About three different guys gasped. They all had the same horrified expression. Jacob voiced it though. "And you let him do that to your car?" he asked Harry, his voice accusing.

"Yeah the car is completely fine. Plus he would have been impossible if I didn't let him," he shrugged.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Jacob asked, then he got a sly look in his eyes. "I could check it out for you real quick. You know, make sure nothing is damaged," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. Leah would've objected, but she saw all the guys looking eager. That would have made her object more, just to piss them off, but it would probably get them away for a bit, so that would be nice.

Harry laughed. "If you wanted to see it you just had to ask." He tossed the keys to Jacob, who whooped, looking completely unashamed at being found out. About five tons of wolf-men followed Jacob, talking about the car excitedly. Draco was still by the car when they got there and she could hear them dramatically asking why he would do something like that to the car.

"Bunch of overgrown boys, huh?" Emily said from their side. Leah rolled her eyes at them, which Harry noticed. He grinned at her mischievously for a second before turning to Emily.

"Hullo. Harry Potter," he said, introducing himself to Emily.

She shook his hand and smiled warmly at him. He didn't even bat an eye at her scars, her imprint was awesome like that. "Emily Young."

"Well, Emily," he started, grinning mischievously again. "You see how Leah's rolling her eyes at them? Do you wanna know what her reaction was when she first saw it?" Now he started truly grinning.

"No, she doesn't," Leah said forcefully.

"Please, what was it?" Emily said, smiling widely too. Leah couldn't blame her, Harry's smile was infectious.

Harry grinned at her then opened his eyes as far as they could go. He then said in a loud girl's voice. "Whose car is _that_?" He then stuck out his tongue, pretending to drool.

Emily held her hand in front of her mouth, trying to hide the little laughs that she was trying to hold in.

"You are completely exaggerating," Leah said, crossing her arms.

Harry put his face back to normal and said. "Oh yeah, I forgot you cursed afterward," he said smiling again.

Emily was now laughing earnestly. Leah tried to act mad again, but her lip twitched and Harry smirked victoriously.

"What was it you guys call it? Oh yeah. You're a git," Leah said.

Harry laughed. "Speaking of gits. Princess over there looks mad. I'm gonna go and see what's got him in a tiff," He grabbed Leah's forearm and squeezed it for a second before walking away. "I'll be right back."

"He's very nice," Leah heard Emily say shyly.

Leah looked at Emily. She really looked at her for the first time in years without bitterness.

Emily looked nervous. She looked like she expected Leah to hit her in the mouth for talking to her, which a month ago was a real possibility.

Then Leah paid special attention to her scars. The scars that Leah was thinking about right before Quil and Mac got attacked. Everything she had been thinking of before going to help Quil and Mac hit her again. Emily had been there for Leah every time Leah needed her, and now for the last few years, she forced Emily to deal with this herself.

Her hand went up on its own will and touched Emily on the cheek, the scarred one. Emily flinched slightly, but relaxed a bit when she saw Leah wasn't going to hit her. Leah stroked the scars a bit like she saw Sam do for her to help a bit, making sure not to hurt her.

"I'm so, so, sorry Emily," Leah said sadly. The guilt almost overwhelmed her. She would have cried if it wasn't for Harry being there. Also, she didn't cry in public. She was too badass for that.

Emily looked surprised for a second before she smiled the beautiful smile that Leah had always been jealous of, and then rammed into Leah, hugging her with all her might. Leah felt Emily's body shuddering before she heard her crying in great wracking sobs. She also kept trying to talk, but all Leah could understand was 'sorry' and 'thank you' a bunch of times.

Leah laughed and hugged her back. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who was a bitch to you two."

"No!" Emily half sobbed. "You deserved to bitch at us. You should have slapped me, you should-"

Leah cut her off laughing "Alright alright. This is a little too dramatic," Emily gave a water chuckle at that. "Come on, let's go sit down away from everyone for a bit."

Emily nodded into her shirt, and then dragged her over to the empty log seats. Everyone else was either cooking or by the cars.

"I missed you so much," Emily said, once they were seated, tearing up a bit again.

"Err. I hated you," Leah said with a sheepish smile. "I really am sorry, Emily. I was a shit cousin. I'll make it up to you, promise."

"You have nothing to make up for!" Emily said vehemently. "We're the ones that hurt you!"

"No. Not only did I take it much worse than I should have," She saw Emily about to interrupt "but you also saved me from making a mistake," she rushed out.

That confused Emily. "What?"

"It would have been a mistake to marry Sam. I realize that now," Leah said with conviction.

Emily didn't seem to have any way to deny that. "You'll be happier with Harry than you would have been," she agreed.

"Well, I hope so," she said wistfully. "He has a girlfriend," she said dejectedly.

"Not for long," Emily snorted.

"Huh?" Leah asked confused.

"He's going to dump her for you eventually. Promise," Emily said with a voice full of conviction. It gave Leah hope.

"How are you so sure?" Leah asked. "He's been going out with her for years! Plus she's probably a hot rich girl that cooks for him and gives amazing sex-"

"Leah," Emily said, looking completely amused. "First of all, have a little faith in Harry. Do you really think he cares about how rich a girl is?"

She had her there. Harry was perfect, he obviously wouldn't.

"Well, I guess not... But-"

"And if she's hot, you're hotter." Emily said.

"What? No I'm-"

"Yes. You are. You were already the most beautiful girl in the reservation before you phased. Now though, the werewolf genes probably made you the hottest girl in the county, maybe the state," Emily said with a straight face.

"Ok, I'll give you that I can eat all I want and stay skinny, but the rest is bull," Leah said skeptically.

"Leah. Trust me. Every girl would kill their firstborn for your body."

"Oh?" Leah said arching an eyebrow. "And how come no one's hit on me for years?" she challenged with a smug look.

"Probably because they're afraid you'll cut their balls off. As beautiful as you are, you're equally scary," she said with a proud grin. Emily had always told her she admired how badass Leah was. "Plus you scowled at everyone that even looked at you," Emily said with a guilty expression.

"Emily. Don't feel bad. I feel guilty enough as it is without adding guilt because you're guilty as well," Leah whined. If Emily understood that sentence, then it would work.

"Alright, fine. Agree to disagree and let it go?" Emily asked happily.

"Sure. Can we be best friends again? I pretty much have no friends anymore," Leah said, feeling a bit pathetic.

"Please!" Emily immediately agreed. "Oh god, I love Sam, but when it comes to any woman problems he's horrible," she said shaking her head. Then she looked up alarmed. "I'm sorry. Is it weird for me to talk-"

"Really Emily. I feel completely nothing for him now. Promise," Leah smiled. "And it feels amazing."

Emily smiled happily and hugged her again.

"Oh, Emily?" Leah said innocently. Emily looked at her warily. "Steal Harry too and I'll kill you," She grinned widely.

Emily hugged her again and nodded frantically.

"I have an idea!" Emily declared. Leah watched on amused by her sudden exclamations. "Here," she said and then reached over and unbuttoned the top three buttons of her top.

"Hm. It has merit," Leah said thinking about it. "Not coming off too strong?"

"Well, okay maybe button just one back on," Emily said after a second of thinking.

"Any other tips?" Leah asked. "Hitch my skirt up? Don't curse?"

"You're not wearing a skirt and you can't stop cursing, so don't bother," Emily retorted quickly.

"Am I interrupting something?" a voice came from behind them.

"Nope," Leah said.

"Good, they're all coming. They're bringing the food first," Harry said, sitting down next to Leah.

Once everyone was sitting down with food in their hands, Leah informed him that they would eat before telling stories. She got to talk to Harry and befriend him a bit more before springing news on him.

His favorite part seemed to be when they were finished eating. They always had paper plates and cups to eat out of and all foods were eaten with their hands, so instead of having a trash bag, everyone threw the flammable kitchenware in the fire. It was extremely quick, clean and fun. Harry laughed and threw them in happily.

What she enjoyed most was watching his friend eat with his hands. Malfoy's face was priceless, he looked completely disgusted. He had even looked around at everyone, completely astonished that people were eating like them. She could see now why Harry called him Princess.

After everyone her had finished and cleaned up, they all slowly stopped talking and looked towards Billy, who was now silent. Once everything was quiet, Billy started.

"Today is a special occasion," he said in his deep voice, the one that never failed to make her sink into the stories he was telling, "this is only the second time we've ever brought someone from outside the tribe to hear our stories, so whenever we have a reason to, it's usually an occasion to celebrate. This one is no different." Harry had a confused expression on his face, so Billy said. "It will all be explained by the end of the stories."

Harry nodded, giving a grateful smile.

"Our tribe has a great history. It has all been passed down from father to son, for us to tell our youth and to educate them. Our tribe was always small, but we survived because of our warriors and because of the magic in our blood." Leah saw Harry narrow his eyes at that. "Before our warriors learned to turn into wolves, we had spirit warriors. Taha Aki-"

For the first time in her life, Leah saw Billy being cut off during a story. Everyone around her turned to look at the person who would dare to do that. It was one of the guests, Draco, that had stood up and gasped.

"You- you-" Draco stuttered.

"Yes, Malfoy, I figured it out too," she heard Harry quietly say from her side "but seriously? Do you have no tact? How the hell did you get into Slytherin?" Harry asked with frustration in his voice.

"Harry? What is it?" Leah asked him worriedly.

"Err," Harry started out "Well, we sort of know-"

"You guys are the wolves killing vampires!" Malfoy blurted out.

There was shocked silence and then "How do you know all this?" she heard Sam ask dangerously.

"We're wizards, we know everything," Malfoy said with an arrogant face. She saw Harry roll his eyes at what she thought was a joke.

It was a weird thing to say, it even sounded a bit corny to her.

Jacob laughed, sounding unsure. "Alright, really. Who told you. Were you guys friends with a vampire like Bella was?" he flashed an infuriating grin towards Leah quickly. "Is your girlfriend back home a vampire as well, Harry?" he laughed.

"Was it the Cullens?" Sam asked gruffly.

"Use your head, you oaf. Who do you think it was on the brooms yesterday?" Malfoy asked.

The mood instantly changed from joyous to alert. Some of the younger wolves stared at them in awe. Seth breathed out "Can you take me flying?" Leah, however just looked at Harry with wide eyes, trying to think if this would change anything. She wasn't upset or happy about it, she was simply a bit shocked still. She felt a lot like she did when she had seen the witches – apparently Harry and Malfoy – kill those vampires. She felt frozen, just taking everything in.

Sam and the older wolves seemed on high alert. They probably still thought of them as a threat.

"What I don't understand is how you had the same exact animagus forms," Harry said suddenly. "Plus your forms _had_ to be magical animals. You were way too fast and strong for it to be a normal wolf..." Harry mused, making very little sense to her.

"What? What the hell is an amigus?" Seth asked, trying to say the weird word.

"Ah-nee-may-gus," Malfoy said slowly.

"Yeah, that," Jacob said impatiently, "what is that?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "When you change to an animal. So how the hell did you two – whichever of you – how did you do it?"

"Oh, we're werewolves, obviously," Mac explained, which she knew wasn't technically correct. If Harry knew so much, he would probably know they weren't real werewolves.

"You're not werewolves," Harry said firmly, confirming her suspicions. "First of all, yesterday wasn't a full moon, second of all it _is _a full moon tonight, and all of you are still human," he explained. "Not only that, but you guys had way too much control in your wolf forms. Real werewolves are crazy with blood-lust," Harry said sadly, he seemed to be reminiscing about something. Probably a werewolf, from the conversation.

"Oh, Edward said we were shape-shifters," Seth said, sounding proud.

Paul shot him a disgusted look. "Traitor," he grumbled.

Malfoy sat straight up and looked at him incredulously. "What did you say you were?" He asked looking very interested. It was somewhat creepy.

"Shape-shifters..." Seth repeated, shifting away from Malfoy a bit.

"So wait, you're _all _wolf shape-shifters?" Malfoy said with a greedy glint to his eye.

Harry had been looking at him weirdly. "Malfoy, what is it?"

Draco looked at him like he was an idiot. "Do you not understand what this is Potter?" Draco half shouted.

"No. what is it?" Harry asked looking a bit exasperated.

"Haven't you ever heard of Africa's shape-shifters?" Draco asked him, still bouncing excitedly.

Leah wanted this overwith so she could see how it would affect them. "What the fuck are you talking about? Just spit that shit out!" she shouted. Her mother gave her a disapproving look. How she could still worry about her language even though they had just found out her imprint was apparently a wizard, she had no idea.

"Alright, alright. Well, there's been legends of humans who can shift to a certain animal at will. This magic isn't learned, it's hereditary," Malfoy started, in a story telling voice. Leah's tribe had never heard someone tell _them_ stories about themselves, so just like her, they were very intrigued to hear it from an outsider's point of view. "That means, no years of going through animagus training, no having to study hundreds of books. They just instinctively know how to transfigure themselves..." Their terminology was somewhat confusing to her, but she got the gist of it

"So we thought they were lost for the longest time?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, they went into hiding, apparently, in Africa, since they kept getting hunted out," Draco said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"I don't see wolves liking Africa very much for some reason..." Jacob mused out loud, scratching his chin.

"Well, they weren't wolves. They were lions, I think," Malfoy replied.

"Ooh prides sounds a bit cooler than packs, too," Mac said dreamily. Leah had to agree. As a lioness, she would kick even more ass.

Harry was the one to gather all of their attention again. "What do you mean, they got hunted out," Harry asked warily.

"Oh! And legends say that their skin was as tough as dragon skin, " Draco said, ignoring Harry, "although I'm pretty sure that's an exaggeration. Their speed and strength was only a little exaggerated." Draco looked at her people now with a bit of respect. "I saw you guys hurt a fucking vampire. That was awesome."

Although they had been hunting vampires for years now, they were still teenage boys, and none of them ever said no to a bit of ego stroking. They all puffed up proudly, Leah included. Then she heard Sam saying "It's our job," solemnly. She rolled her eyes.

"Malfoy," Harry's tone caught everyone's attention. He was still looking very worried. "You can't tell anyone that we found them," he announced to everyone's visible shock. Leah was going to ask him this anyways, but no one was ever happy about it, or even thought about it first. She felt so proud of him.

"What? Are you serious?" Draco asked incredulously.

"_Yes,_" Harry hissed out. "Don't you realize what could happen to them?" He asked, sweeping an arm out to motion to everyone. "They'll be hunted out too. Why do you think the first of them were probably hunted?" he paused for a second, looking at Draco pointedly. "Research, Malfoy. Research. You just mentioned a few different things that were amazing of them. Don't you think the ministry is going to want to try to copy it?" Harry's voice turned sardonic. "Not only that, but if they can't copy the magic from them, they'll try to regulate them. They'll be treated just like real werewolves."

Leah was holding her breath. This was not how she expected the night to go at all. She had wanted to just share with her imprint her secret and hope he wouldn't tell her to leave him alone. Him dumping his girlfriend for her wish, but she'd settle for him letting her follow him around. She couldn't take much less. However; now she wasn't only worried about his reaction, but now apparently their government wanted to abduct them and perform weird tests on her.

Now she was worried about his reaction _and_ her tribe trying to kill him to protect themselves. She could see where they would be coming from, but the imprint was preventing her from agreeing.

Sam had gone too long without doing something stupid apparently. "You will not be telling _anyone_ any of this," he said authoritatively, standing up. Hopefully not ready to fight. Thankfully, he and everyone else's alarm seemed to be centered on Malfoy. Their body language even seemed to be aligned with Harry's making it seem as if they were behind him, and against Malfoy.

Draco took one look at him and didn't bother responding. "But Potter! Imagine what we could do with that kind of magic! I even heard that they didn't age at all!"

Harry immediately stood up and responded "Malfoy. If you have any kinds of delusions about immortality, I will end them," he said, picking up in volume. "Voldemort's whole reign of terror was because he wanted to be _immortal,_" he spat out the last word. His eyes tightened up and his voice dropped to a hiss. "Do you want me to end you as well?"

Leah widened her eyes. Had he killed people before? She had noticed that he seemed a bit like a fighter, but she didn't think it was that bad. And the reign of terror? Was her imprint in some kind of war?

Draco shut up at this, and he cowered a bit, but Leah noticed that he didn't answer the question.

"You didn't answer me, Malfoy." Apparently, he'd noticed too. Harry sat down now that he seemed calmer and Draco didn't seem to be so excited. He looked at Draco expectantly.

Everyone seemed to hold their breaths to hear his answer. None came for a while. Draco kept staring at Harry, his eyes betraying his indecision. Leah watched him, it looked like he was about to cave in, when his jaw set and she saw a defiant, greedy look in his eye. "They won't be treated like they were in the past. The ministry is a lot better now," he tried to argue. This couldn't end well.

"I guess you've made your choice," Harry said and then sighed. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this."

Leah saw Harry's eyes tighten the tiniest amount and then he moved. Fast. He moved _really fast_. The werewolves could see what he did, but even then, none of them would have been able to stop it.

In one fluid motion, Harry raised his arm while flicking his wrist and a small wooden stick came out of his sleeve, all on the way up. He caught it and pointed it straight at Draco's heart. The wolves next to Draco started to move away from him, but Leah didn't think that they had enough time to get away if Harry had pointed at them. At the end of the stick a bright red light shot out. It was blinding in intensity. It wasn't as fast as the light of speed or anything close, meaning she could just barely see the beam of energy move from the stick to Draco. As the fastest wolf, she probably would be able to dodge it if she was in Draco's position, but it would be close.

The light rocketed forward, hitting Draco right in the chest, momentarily spreading as if it had spread into snakes that were winding their way around his torso, and then it all just absorbed into his body. There was a soft thunderclap sound and then Draco was blasted backwards ten feet, his body landing like a rag doll.

All eyes were wide and staring at the prone unmoving form of Draco.

"Did you kill him?" Jacob asked, sounding shocked and a bit scared. "Oh, no never mind, I see him breathing."

Everyone ignored Jacob and looked back at Harry who was now slowly walking to Draco's form. He bent on one knee and waved the stick over the prone body again, this time she didn't see a light come out until the third pass, but this one was soft and came out more like a mist than a beam. The mist, too, sank into Draco, but this time his head and had no noticeable effect.

Harry looked back at them with sad eyes and started walking back toward his seat next to Leah. "I hate doing that," he murmured softly. "Don't worry guys, I erased his memory of tonight. When I take him home, he'll think that we had a nice bonfire and that he got food poisoning," he said and scratched his head. "I think I got some of the twins' old potions to make him feel sick."

He noticed that everyone was too shocked to speak. "I'm really sorry about all this. I promise that I won't tell anyone about you guys. Malfoy won't be able to tell anyone either," he said with pleading eyes, trying to get them to believe him. "It's not only for you guys either. If you guys don't age. Do you understand how many people would want to be immortal? Half the magical wars were fought over this. I can't let this get to them," he said passionately.

Leah made sure to give him a reassuring smile. "Thank you for stopping him," she said, intending on reassuring him that they didn't blame him, when Billy interrupted.

"I think it's better if you guys leave," Billy said, in his deep voice.

Leah immediately jumped to her feet. "What? No! We haven't fixed anything here. We need to tell him more than ever now!" Leah shouted.

Her mother spoke up. "Young lady, if you disagree you will say it _without_ jumping up and yelling."

"It's fine, Leah," Harry said sadly, patting her hand, "I really don't think they-"

Leah, however grabbed on to his hand hard and begged "Please don't go. There's a reason you're here. You still need to know more. Please stay, Harry," she pleaded, making her eyes as big as possible. She wasn't above using anything to get her way.

She could tell that it was getting hard for him to resist. While they were staring at each other, the tribe had been deciding about what to do and had just come to a decision. "We have come to a decision," Billy started out needlessly. "We will allow Harry Potter to hear our stories, as is his right." Leah's smiled widely. "However, this won't be done until _he,_" he pointed at Draco distastefully, "is gone, since he _should not have been here in the first place,_" this time he glared at Leah. "We'll reconvene next week."

Leah looked down disappointed. If Harry wasn't explained about the imprint, then she would look very foolish trying to hang around him for a week. He might not even come back. She thought about explaining it herself, but it was well known that it was a bad idea. As his imprinter, she was too emotionally attached and could react badly on his responses. Not only that, but imprintees tended to not believe the wolf and thought they were lying and took it badly. It ended up badly most of the time. Sam and Emily were a prime example of that.

She looked sadly at Harry who was nodding along at the tribal elders. He looked at her and seemed to pause. She didn't know if it was how sad she obviously was, or what, but it caused Harry to act.

"Excuse me, but I can have Draco on his way home in about twenty seconds. If that's the issue, do you think we can continue right now?" he asked respectfully. He glanced at Leah questioningly and she made sure to give him the brightest smile she could.

"Of course. As long as he is not here, we can continue," Billy said solemnly. Well, that was pretty much the only expression he really had, Leah thought.

Harry then waved his wand a few times. First he caused Draco to float over to Harry. Everyone moved out of the way of the floating human being warily and watched with rapt attention to the real magic that was being done in front of them. Leah herself was completely awed. Then Harry cause a piece of wood that was very close to a surfboard to appear out of thin air. Leah didn't even see it come from anywhere, and she didn't think it was teleported from somewhere else, because she saw it very quickly from, as if it was being grown by pieces.

It was incredibly amazing watching Harry do magic. It made him look incredibly powerful, the lights playing on his face every time he cast a spell or did anything and his arm making precise wand movements. His face was a mask of concentration, completely focused on his task.

Leah found herself getting aroused.

Similarly as the board, ropes appeared and wrapped themselves around Draco and the board. Harry then gave one final wand wave towards the woods and the board silently shot towards the woods, in the direction of Harry's house, picking up speed as it went, until it was no longer visible.

"He'll be alright, don't worry," Harry said, and smiled at everyone.

"We weren't really worried," Leah smirked at him.

Harry laughed a beautiful laugh.

Her tribe soon started up conversation again, mostly around Harry and his magic. They were all looking at him like either a god or a demon. Okay, she was completely exaggerating, but they looked a few ranges of curious. She decided she was going to act like it was no big deal, just like Harry did for her when he found her naked. He would probably appreciate that. She quickly told herself to get over her imprint apparently being able to do who knows what with a wave of his hand, and to be a normal person to him. She decided she would do what she wanted to a while ago, to reassure him no one blamed him because of Draco, and that they were sure he wouldn't say anything. A few people heard her and immediately agreed. It was times like those that she loved her pack.

She knew she did the right thing when Harry smiled the most genuine smile she'd seen from him yet, and squeezed her hand. He did all this when she was the first to talk to him, not asking him about the magic.

She kept talking to him until Billy was ready to continue the stories.

They asked Harry a few questions first about magic, can anyone do it? Where do you learn it? Are there any laws? What are you really here for?

Harry answered truthfully, but concisely, not giving much more information than was asked. "No, only one in a thousand people can do magic.", "There are schools that monitor all children for magic, and they enroll you if you are.", "There are ministries of magic, founded thousands of years ago, which have tons of laws.", "I'm here because the Volturi was recently here, so the ministries are naturally curious in regards to whether they should eradicate them."

Almost everyone relaxed at the fact that he was here protecting humans, and hunting vampires, and that there were regulations. The elders even gave him wide smiles and got very friendly with him. The only ones that didn't seem to relax, were herself and Sam. Leah freaked out at him fighting vampires, but she couldn't complain until he knew she was his soul-mate, therefore had a say in it. Plus, it was a bit hypocritical of her.

Sam didn't relax because he just never relaxed.

Billy started explaining the basics of their tribes first, ending with the with the story about Taha aki and the third wife. Leah didn't pay much attention to what story was being told, she mostly just watched Harry and his reactions. He seemed incredibly engrossed in the story. His eyes would widen when a fact came up about the wolves. Sometimes they would tighten as if taking caution of something. Twice she caught him giving a single shiver, then waving his hand over himself. He must have cast a spell on himself to warm him, because she could feel heat coming from his body every time he did that. He also seemed to be very aware of people watching him, because he would look at her out of the corner of his eyes when she wasn't being discrete and was practically facing him instead of Billy. He didn't complain once though, so he probably had a lot of experience with staring as well.

There was one time that she couldn't have stopped watching him, even if she tried. It was when Billy talked about the third wife's sacrifice, stabbing herself to attract the vampire's attention, letting the wolf win the fight. When Harry heard that, she saw his eyes shine with such passion and fierceness that she could've sworn he was about to get a stick and stab himself as well. The moment passed though, when he caught her staring again.

"I loved your stories and traditions. Thank you so much for sharing this with me," Harry said gratefully when Billy finished.

The tribal elders nodded back with their almost constant serious expressions.

"I just have one question. I could tell that you guys want to keep this secret... so why would you tell me? You said it was my right to hear this as well..." He trailed off questioningly.

The elders looked at one another and seemed to anonymously come to the same conclusion. "Leah will tell you why," and with that, everyone seemed to disperse. Some offered their apologies about the start, others slapped his back and welcomed him to the tribe, while others just nodded at him.

Soon it was just him and Leah. Harry looking curious and Leah feeling and looking nervous.

"I'm just going to come out and say it," Leah announced as if talking to a crowd, then she looked at Harry and said. "Other than the elders, there's only one exception to who can know." She then looked at him tenderly, with all the awe that she felt the first time she saw him. "The imprints."

Tenderness turned to nervousness when Harry kept staring at her, with no expression on his face. Finally, he spoke. "Tell me everything about imprinting," he said impassively.

That wasn't quite the reaction she was expecting. She didn't know what to do now, she didn't want to freak him out with all the details. He must have noticed her nervousness because his look softened. "Please, Leah." Grabbing her hand for a moment and giving it a squeeze.

He went to pull away, but she grabbed on to it desperately, like a life line. This would help her have the courage to tell him everything. He seemed to understand because he didn't say anything and even squeezed a bit when she was getting the most fidgety.

"Well, I'll tell you what we know for sure first and then I'll tell you our theories," she said and he nodded with a smile, agreeing. "It all starts when you see the person you're going to imprint on. Well, their eyes. That's what does it," she started explaining, thinking back on when it happened to her so that she was unable to keep the dreamy tone out of her voice. "It's like nothing else matter when you see them. Everything that you thought important doesn't matter to you, and all that matters is that person," she finished.

"Wow. That sounds... And you are okay with that?" Harry asked with concern. She loved the concern, but she was just glad that he hadn't left yet.

"Yes. I absolutely love it," she said passionately. "Everyone that's ever done it is extremely happy about it. It affected me even more, it's a long story, but I was miserable before I did it, you saved me," she said, looking at him with awe again, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.

She noticed, that until now, they hadn't said it out loud – that she had imprinted on _him_. She saw Harry get a bit uncomfortable, that's when she remembered she had only implied it.

"Do you want to hear the rest, Harry?" she asked, to try to get it all over with. Harry nodded, still looking a bit surprised and fidgety.

"Well, I pretty much get depressed if I don't see you for a long time. Um... no imprint can be harmed by anyone in our tribe, it's pretty much a law." Here, Harry raised his eyebrows, but didn't interrupt. "I don't think it's important, but I'm the only girl wolf ever, so you're the first male imprint." She tried to smile at him, but it came out very weakly. "And I can't really see any other guys that way anymore, it's like you're the only one I can see. Which I wouldn't want any other way anyways."

Harry winced at the last statement. She hated that she was causing him pain, plus it was painful to her too, for him to be like this about the imprint. "Do you want to go home?" Leah asked dejectedly. She hadn't exactly expected him to jump up and ask her to marry him – but it was still hurt a bit.

"No! I -" he looked at her panicked and then his face turned saddened. "I'm sorry Leah. I just don't know what to do here at all. I um... I have a girlfriend so I don't know to do," he repeated, looking lost.

Leah grimaced at that. "Listen, I-." She stopped and gathered the courage the say the last thing she wanted to say. "It's not _necessary_ to have _that_ kind of relationship. You're the most important thing to me," she said reverently, "that means, if you want to just be friends, I'd be satisfied with that, if not extremely happy, and I'd try not to hurt your err _girlfriend_." It took all her willpower not to spit that last word out. "The only thing more important to me than your happiness is your safety," she said, hoping that wasn't too much for him.

He looked at her with concern on his face. "But there's no chance for you to be happy dating another guy is there?"

She shook her head sadly. "I wouldn't want to be, even if I could."

Harry sighed sadly. "I"m so _so_ sorry, Leah." He put his head in his hands.

"Hey," she said, grabbing his arms and bringing them off his face so that he could see she wasn't mad. "It's not your fault. At all. Please don't be sorry."

"But it is! Because of me you might be alone forever! But if I try to fix it, I'll just be hurting Ginny instead," he said even more morosely.

"Harry," she snapped sternly. She figured that a harder tone might help bring him out of it. "It's neither of our faults. By your logic, I'm a lot more to blame since I'm the one who imprinted." She raised an eyebrow at him, but was inwardly cheering that he had stopped moping.

"So, it's not your fault. Plus, don't worry about me so much. I'll be the one annoying the shit out of you soon. As my imprint, I want you near me as much as possible, so you'll have to tell me to go away all the time," she said jokingly, hoping he wouldn't.

"I won't do that. I feel better when I'm around you as well, even when if I don't know you that well," He smiled at her "yet." Her heart soared. "The only thing I'm concerned about is how Ginny will be about having you around all the time," he said worriedly.

"Thank you," she said with tears in her eyes at being wanted. "And don't worry about your girlfriend. I"ll make myself as non-intrusive as possible. I'll do everything I can to make her happy if it makes you happy as well." His smile was bright after that. "But, if your girlfriend tries to hurt you... I'll kick the shit out of her," she said, fiercely.

Harry looked surprised at that, as if not many people stood up for him. He had on a very emotional smile and then he got up and pulled on her hand. She got up as well on instinct. When she was standing, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly. She wrapped her arms around his waist and put her head in the crook of his neck, breathing deeply. This was where she belonged. She squeezed a bit tighter and was pleasantly surprised that he was a bit stronger than a normal human, so she could give him a proper hug.

She spoke into his neck, and she felt him shiver. "If you give me hugs like this everyday, I'll be content even if you have a girlfriend," she said, feeling warmer than she ever had.

Harry chuckled at that. "I'll be sure to do it a few times a day then."

A tear rolled out of her eye, but she quickly tried to hide it. She sniffed and reluctantly stepped out of the hug when he let go. Harry got a big watery smile form her for his promise.

"So... Do you want to come over tomorrow?" Harry asked her after a moment of silence.

"Yes, please," Leah said in a little girl voice, making him laugh. "You've been very accepting, and just amazing about this." She commented.

"Well, with magic, I've seen crazier stuff happen," he smiled charmingly at her.

"Ooh. You must have a lot of stories then," Leah said clapping her hands, already looking forward to sitting with him and listening to the real magical stories. Maybe she could convince him that friends cuddled often. "But you should go home now, it's already extremely late." Leah sighed and looked at him sadly, missing him already.

With one last hug, she pushed him to go, and watched him sadly, wishing she could go with him. He had left the keys of his car with her since he said he only used it for appearances and he much preferred teleporting – or whatever he called it. She had definitely seen him teleporting, even if it was louder than she thought teleporting should be. That cheered her up a bit, she would get to show the car off to everyone and pretend she was going to let them drive it just to tease them. Then she would drive off to see Harry and make them all jealous. She cackled evilly at that.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Leah woke up from the weirdest naughty dream she'd ever had. She was clutching a pillow, which had a wet spot where she'd been grinding on it, and there was a bit of drool around her mouth. She couldn't decide if the dream was a good dream or a nightmare.

It had started out horribly. She was in Harry's house, visiting him, but his girlfriend was there with him. She and the girlfriend were both fighting over Harry the whole time, touching him whenever they could and sneering at each other when he wasn't looking.

However, at one point, Harry had gone upstairs and his girlfriend had followed two seconds later. Leah hadn't thought much of it, until a few minutes had passed and they weren't coming back. She quickly got bored, so she went upstairs to hang out with them. When she walked in, his girlfriend was bouncing on top of him. She had wanted to cry. That's when she thought she was in a nightmare.

However, it quickly got weird when his girlfriend asked her to join them with a smile. Leah caught onto what she was trying to do, she was trying to prove to Harry that she would do anything, so it got even weirder when she immediately accepted. She didn't want to think about the actual dream again or else she knew she wasn't getting up without some relief, either by killing someone or by masturbating, she wasn't sure which. Seth was in the house, so he would probably hear it. She would have to settle for a cold shower, and making sure that she never thought of that dream with the pack, or by herself.

After a cold shower, in which she safely put away the dream in the furthest corner of her mind, she went and showed off the car. She loved watching all of the boys drool over it. She still couldn't believe how rich her imprint was, especially considering how humble he seemed. The highlight of her day came when she promised Paul a ride after Seth got to drive. She quickly made sure to promise Jacob and Sam after Paul, they should've known something was up. She let Seth drive, because he was her brother and she loved him, but once she saw Seth come back with the biggest smile that she'd ever seen she rushed over to him and drove off, opening the window and laughing as loudly as she could. It tickled her heart to see their crushed faces in the rear view mirror.

The rest of the day, she spent at Harry's house, mostly just watching TV with him. He had put all of the appliances back and explained that they were magical and that he was trying to hide it from the muggles like her. When she asked him how she would've been able to tell that they were magical, he explained that magical appliances sometimes tended to be a bit... whimsical. He demonstrated by getting a slice of bread and throwing it in the vicinity of the toaster. The toaster then barked and caught the bread in mid air, pretending to grapple with it, shaking it everywhere, while toasting it at the same time. It finally threw the perfectly toasted bread back at Harry and then hopped back over to its spot, falling silent.

Leah laughed like she had when she was a little child at a circus, watching the toaster delightedly. Harry had watched her with a smile on his face.

He explained that magic was sometimes whimsical like that, and that it wasn't always expected, it could've done something for any reason when she was there, so he tries to hide all magical items any time a muggle comes around.

It felt completely natural to be hanging out with him. The silences weren't awkward and conversations went by smoothly.

She asked him a lot of questions about magic, and he patiently explained everything. He told her about how they travel through apparition, which was pretty much loud teleportation. She learned about the floo, she thought he was messing with her when he told her people stick their heads in fires to talk to each other for a while. She was shown the broom that he loved, and was promised to go flying later, to which she was a bit scared of. She asked him about school and he explained a bit about Hogwarts, his second home.

She could see just how much he loved that place, just by how reverently he spoke its name. He told her that to properly speak about Hogwarts, they would need a few days, so that he'd leave that for another day.

He spoke a bit more about his two best friends, but they both silently seemed to agree to not touch on his girlfriend yet.

She in turn told him about being the first female werewolf("shape shifter", he had interrupted with a smile), about what exactly it means to be a shape-shifter and a bit more about their tribe. She spoke of her family, telling him about growing up beating Seth up and how her dad had died seeing her phase. He squeezed her hand when she told him of this. He asked about Sam once since he apparently picked up on tension there, and she told him with a sad smile that it would take a lot more time to properly speak of it, and that it was a sad story.

He had laughed at her using his words.

Leah was also delighted at the fact that he kept his promise. Throughout the day he gave her multiple hugs. She had squeezed him tightly and thanked him every time. There were a few times, that she could've sworn that he looked at her with the same tenderness that she felt every time she looked at him, but he had quickly broken eye contact when that happened.

* * *

The next two weeks had passed by in the same manner. Leah would patrol, go to Harry's house and then go back home. They kept their conversations light still, and they didn't touch any of the more sensitive subjects for a long time, but that was okay with both of them. They were learning about each other and getting to know each other. Leah, especially, was happy about this, since she could tell that he was falling for her at least a bit.

Harry had not been back to the reservation to talk to the elders or the pack yet, which was okay with her for now. It was a bit surprising that the pack hadn't thought too much on it, but she personally thought it was that they didn't want Harry to go get the car back from the reservation.

Only a few things managed to mar her otherwise perfect days. Their fears, did in fact come true, and a newborn vampire would come in and attack every few days. While that was fun, and not threatening in the least, the obvious threat behind them was. Someone was creating them and specifically sending them towards the pack.

Or more accurately, right between the reservation and the Cullens. Right where Harry lived.

They had found out that Harry's blood attracts vampires like a light to bugs. Apparently it's highly magical, which vampires need. They had been hanging out with Jacob and Nessie, when Harry taught them a bit more about the magical world. Edward, who was watching over from a ways off because of Leah ("Dude, you smell like dead old people who haven't changed their diapers in years, back the fuck off"), quickly called Carlisle to come over because he apparently _loved_learning more, especially about themselves.

Arrogant vampires. They never asked to learn something from her. She refused to listen to Edward when he said it was because she would have snapped at him. She snapped at him and told him to stay out of her mind. She then snapped at her own mind for pointing out he was right. She caught Edward trying not to laugh, so she pouted angrily until Harry grabbed her hand again.

Harry then promised he'd teach her occlumency to block Edward like he does. Harry explained more about Occlumency until Carlisle showed up, they weren't sure if she could learn it or not, but they would try later.

They quickly got back on topic.

"It's actually not the _blood_that you need most, it's the magic in it." Harry lectured. "It's how vampires stay alive. The most magical part of a human being, is the soul, but only a few creatures can take magic from it," he said. She shuddered thinking of what kind of creatures could mess with souls. "The most magical body part, however, is the blood. It's the life force of a living creature. Even muggles, have a little bit of magic in their blood that it absorbs from wild magic. Wizards think it's what keeps them alive, but modern technology pretty much explained everything, I think. And it was proven that muggles have magic in their souls. They just lack the ability to manipulate it."

Leah interrupted him. "That's like the twentieth time I heard that word. Draco says it all the time, but he seems to hate whatever muggles are, he always makes a face."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Malfoy just has a superiority complex. Muggles are people without magic. Err. That's what wizards say. It's more like the people without the ability to influence magic in any way." He must have figured out what she was about to say. "You guys aren't muggles. You use magic unintentionally, but still use it."

"Anyways, the reason that vampires need the blood, is because you need magic to live. Your bodies are technically dead. The only thing keeping them moving and living is magic. However, since your bodies are dead, your souls are ready to move on, and stopped creating magic for themselves. That's why you need to steal magic from other creatures." Harry finished.

Carlisle had been eagerly listening the entire time, but when Harry said souls, he gave Edward a smug grin.

"I can't believe it." Edward said. "We really haven't lost our souls? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, of course," Harry said surprised. "The only way to hurt your soul is through real evil acts, but even then, you don't completely lose it. You more like... Maim it," Harry said, and then scrunched his eyebrows "Which might be worse actually."

"How are you so sure that they still have them?" Leah asked, very skeptical that any vampires could have souls, since that would make them more human. She hated thinking of them as human.

"Well, soul magic," Harry said simply. When he saw that Leah wanted a better answer, he rushed out "There are a few magics that affect the soul, and they've worked on vampires, so it's proven that their souls are there."

Edward gave Harry a big smile and immediately pulled him in for a hug. Leah immediately growled deep in her throat, making Edward release her imprint, although his grin didn't fade in the least. She wasn't happy about them touching Harry, and she also wasn't happy about making Harry smell like them. Harry managed to calm her down by holding her hand. She noticed this was the second time this happened, so she should act angry more often if it would lead to more hand holding.

"Oh and that's why I probably smell a lot better to you guys than normal humans, because my blood has a lot more magic than most humans." Harry remembered, and then started explaining "I'm not affecting you right now because I magically disguised my scent, but that's why the vampires like trying to get to me so much. Plus, my magic is one of the strongest right now out of all living wizards, since the greatest mages died during our last war."

Leah smiled with pride. She knew her imprint was strong, else she wouldn't have imprinted on him. Only the strongest could keep up with her. She also knew that he wasn't lying, he was just stating it as fact, not boasting. "Is that why you had to fight the war? Because of how strong your magic is?" She asked interestedly. She always loved to hear about how awesome her imprint was.

"Sort of. They sort of found out about how strong my magic was going to be, so I was at the center of it. I mean, I wasn't even eighteen when I ended the war," he said, shaking his head. "I hadn't even finished my schooling. The only reason we won was because of an extremely unlikely sequence of events."

"That sounds fascinating, is it too long a story to summarize?" Carlisle asked, at the edge of his seat. Leah blinked and looked closer. No, he wasn't even on his seat. He was literally hovering about two inches in front of his seat. Creepy.

"Er. I'll try." He tilted his head back and put his hand on his chin, as if trying to remember it all. "My mother gave her life for me, when he tried to kill me as a baby, her sacrifice saved me, and destroyed his body. Then when he got a new body, he took my blood, which contained my mother's sacrifice, so his body contained my blood. Then he was so evil, that his soul accidentally shredded a piece off and stuck to me when I was a baby, it was stuck on my scar." Leah loved him already, but she wouldn't suggest storytelling as a hobby for him. "Then my headmaster led me to believe that I had to die for the war to be over, so I went and sacrificed myself and let him shoot a killing curse at me. Because I sacrificed myself, my mother's sacrifice reactivated itself, saving my body from dying when he hit me with the killing curse. Likewise, since his soul was on me, the killing curse killed his soul piece, but not my soul." His eyebrows were scrunched up in thought the whole time he spoke, probably trying to get it all correct.

She gawked at him. And she thought she had it bad with Sam and the phasing. Attempted murder as a baby and then all that happening? She felt like shit for being a bitch about relationship problems. She should have found something much better to bitch about.

"And then he had the most powerful wand in the world that I accidentally got to give me its allegiance. So when he tried to kill me with it, it backfired on him." He finished with a smile. "He fucked up on practically every turn." He chuckled. "And you have no idea how many times he could have killed me, but he stopped to gloat." He laughed hard there. Leah thought he looked a bit deranged, as if he would stop laughing suddenly any second and started killing people. Somehow, it made him look even hotter.

It wasn't the only thing that made him hotter out of all that though. It was true, that she really liked him being more on her level of insanity, but there were also other things. A whole nation fighting over him? That was intense. If she wasn't reassured that it was all over, she would be so worried. It was like everyone knew how awesome how he was so he was always at the center of everything. Even the vampires were attracted because of-

She gasped. "Oh shit! That means we have to have permanent patrols around your house!" she said frantically. "The vampires are all after you!"

Harry chuckled softly at how worried she was. At least until she gave him her deadliest glare. "I'll be fine, don't worry-."

That sentence sounded awfully familiar to her. "You said that when you were looking for the giant bears as well! That was completely idiotic by the way. I didn't wanna say anything but-" She gasped again. "You were looking for the wolves that you saw when you killed those vampires!"

"Yes, and apparently I succeeded more than I thought at the time. " He smiled at her. "Also, you saw that we can take care of ourselves." He did have a point. A small point... a very easy to ignore point.

"Yes, but you don't understand, they don't sleep at all. They could get you in the middle of the night. Plus you were up in the sky where they couldn't hurt you, they're much faster than you and you could get hurt!" She argued, trying to keep him safe. She would probably lock him up if he wasn't able to undo the lock magically. "They're so fast that you could be eating dinner and they could snap your necks and.. and" She suddenly stopped talking, making herself too upset thinking about him dying.

Harry seemed to sense her distress because he immediately wrapped his arms around her "Hey, don't worry, I have magic all around the house protecting me. No one can even find me unless I let them. I bet you guys were trying to find me and couldn't until I let you in that day I found you, right?" He asked softly in her ear, being as reassuring as possible.

She shivered at the feel of his breath on her ear and neck, but pulled away and stared him down anyways "Are you sure? You promise they can't get to you?" Leah asked.

"Not unless they either have very powerful wizards helping them, or if I'm away from the house," he said, sounding honest, but still firmly enough that her worries were soothed, if not erased.

"Fine." She sighed and put her head on his shoulder for a few seconds.

While they were wrapped up in themselves, Everyone else had gotten up and given them privacy. Carlisle left because he felt for Leah and wanted to do anything to make it easier them. Nessie left because she was being carried, but she wanted to stay with Leah and Harry. The rest left because a nice Leah still freaked them out.

The other thing that made Leah worry was the upcoming visit from Harry's friends. He wasn't sure if his girlfriend would come yet. To be honest, she wasn't that worried about his girlfriend. Yes, it would be painful to see them together and it would be very hard not ripping the girls eyes out when she so much as looked at Harry, let alone seeing them kiss; but from everything he'd said, she wasn't the one that held the most sway with him. No, that was his two best friends.

Since he had no blood family, his best friends took the place of the closest and most trusted people in his life. She could tell the bond between them was better than any blood brother or sister. If there was one thing that she learned from Harry, it was that he held family above all else. Ron and Hermione were his family, and being his best friends as made them doubly important. She would have to make a good impression on them if she wanted to be a part of Harry's life.

* * *

They were arriving that night. Ron and Hermione. Which meant Leah was drilling holes in the floor of her house with her pacing. At least his girlfriend wasn't coming, saying she had a party that her team had to go to. Leah snorted. As if anything is better than being with Harry.

She grimaced, that sounded corny, even in her own mind.

Seth and her mother both tried to reassure her that his friends would love her, which made her more irritable. Her being irritated, made her mother irritated, which in turn made Leah more irritated. Both of them being irritated led to Seth being scared. That irritated Leah.

This escalated to the point where their yelling had attracted Quil from next door. Her mother had apparently seen her chance and told Quil and Seth to hold her down. "Don't you dare." Leah said in a deathly low voice.

While she was sure they were scared to death of Leah, it seemed their conditioning to listen to the closest mother, less they get their ears pulled, kicked in, so they listened to Sue. They quickly brought Leah down, Quil sitting on her legs and Seth on her back, while she was laying face down and flailing. She kicked and screamed until she heard her mom going through her purse. She was momentarily confused about what she could possibly want from there, until she heard her phone calling a familiar sequence. Harry's number.

Her kicking started up twice as frantically as before. She did however stop screaming, she didn't want Harry to hear her kicking a tantrum like a baby.

"Hullo." She heard say Harry through the phone. She flailed harder. It didn't help.

"Hey Harry." Her mother said warmly, smiling like if he was there. Leah started making cut throat signs, threatening her mother's life. She was ignored.

"Um. Is this Sue?" He asked, not recognizing the voice. She momentarily stopped kicking, a bit excited that he could recognize it wasn't her voice. It only lasted a second before she started again, desperately trying to stop whatever evil her mom was about to cause.

"Yes, it's me. So listen," she said and then looked Leah with a smirk "Leah is a bit worried about meeting your friends, so I'm calling to see if there's anything you can do." She paused. "Well, a bit, is kind of a lie. She's extremely worried."

She heard Harry chuckle a bit and she huffed. She had stopped bothering trying to flail by now. "Give me the phone!" She repeatedly mouth-screamed at her mom now. She was ignored again, of course.

"Do you have any ideas for what I could do?" Harry asked?

"I don't know, we were hoping you would know." Sue sighed. "Right now Seth and Quil are sitting on top of her to stop her from doing any harm." She heard Harry's barking laughter, making everyone in the room laugh. Except for her, that is.

She crossed her arms and waited. After everyone had sufficiently laughed at her, Harry asked to speak to her. When she was handed the phone, she said with as much venom in her voice as she could muster "Hello, Harry." Which unsurprisingly, wasn't much. More like none. It sounded more like she was relieved.

"Hey Leah." He chuckled. "Do you want to come over? We can talk before they get here so that you're not so worried."

"I'm not worried." She mumbled. "I'm perfectly fine," she said more clearly.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

She would've liked it if he insisted she came over instead of giving in so easily. "Yes," she said petulantly and crossed her arms.

"Nothing I can do to change your mind?" Harry asked. There was a trace of mischievousness in his voice.

"Nothing," she said sullenly.

"Hmm.. What if I brush your fur?" He asked.

She bit her lip and tried to control her ears from twitching. That sounded amazing to her.

He continued on mercilessly.

"I can conjure a giant brush. I'll even scratch your neck?" he asked in a sing song voice. Her feet started twitching by themselves, since she had no tail right now.

"I'll be right there!" She said and hung up. She hopped up and bounced a bit excitedly, looking for the cord to tie her clothes with. When she found it she saw everyone staring at her.

Apparently Seth and Quil thought she was shaking her legs in anger, because they had gotten off and away from her, but now they were staring at her wide eyed. She tried to hide her blush and said "I'm going over to Harry's, mom!" and walked out with her head high, doing her best not to bounce in place.

* * *

Draco was tired. Everyday, Potter would give him really hard tasks that he would call "Training". At first they made sense: throw curses at targets until you reach a certain number per minute, then maintain that same number, but now with a certain accuracy. He had thought it was fairly easy too. Then it got weird. Maintain those same numbers, but eat a whole sandwich while you're casting. Change clothes in between spells. Sometimes he would go back to making sense, like when he shot spells at Draco to dodge while casting.

He didn't notice it at first, but he was sure it was because of that girl that was always over their house now. Whenever Draco had some really weird task to complete, he would see the girl get there five minutes after he started. Whenever he had normal tasks that made sense, she wouldn't come until later that night. It wasn't difficult for him to figure out that he wasn't concentrating cause he was looking forward to seeing the girl too much. Now he had to think about how to use this for blackmail.

It had to be subtle. He couldn't really outright blackmail him because Potter was his commanding officer. He would most likely end up in Azkaban, with his memory erased of whatever material he had. He sighed. Of course this was all moot anyways, since apparently his friends were coming to visit and meet the girl, so everyone most likely knew about it. Still, there had to be something he could gain from it. Maybe Potter's firebolt? That would be amazing. The company had been somewhat damaged from the war and it still hadn't been up and running, so he couldn't just buy one.

Draco didn't have a good idea of how, but he did figure out where to figure it out. He would go and do what he'd been doing every night. Try and take over the world. Draco blinked. He'd been watching too many cartoons. No, he would go and watch his new favorite thing on the TV. Reality shows. He would figure out what to do from that. Those shows reminded him so much of the Slytherin common room. The drama, the betrayals, the backstabbing. He felt a little less homesick every time he watched them

He really had to stop thinking about the Television. Although it was probably the muggles' greatest creation. In fact, because of that, he had decided that he wasn't going to kill them all when he became Minister of Magic. He would leave them alone, just so that they could make more of those shows for him to watch. And he would become the Minister of Magic. His father told him so. That was why he had become an auror. He would quickly rise through the ranks and then campaign saying he was a veteran. Now, if only he could get through this stupid auror training.

Draco yawned. He was really tired. He had been flying through the forest for the last four hours. Potter had said to go and use the charm to find scents to see if he could catch any tracks of vampires. He had been told to walk, and to try to find the scent that one of the Cullens left for him to find and track.

Draco scoffed. Potter was treating him like a child. He would go and find a real vampire, kill it and then shove it in Potter's face. Potter had told him all the time never to do it alone, but Draco was smarter than him. He took Potter's invisibility robe, he masked his smell and silences all sounds. He was virtually untraceable unless with magic.

He yawned again and blinked hard. He opened his eyes and then blinked again to make sure he was seeing right. There, not twenty feet on his right, was the girl that Potter was always with. That wasn't all. She was taking off her shirt. Then her pants. Draco's eyes bugged out. No wonder he hangs out with her so much. She's the hottest girl he'd ever seen. Even if she was a muggle and not white, she was still had the hottest body Draco had ever seen. Of course, he had only seen Parkinson naked, but still.

Then his eyes really bugged out. She transformed to a wolf. A giant wolf. A wolf that promptly took off toward his house.

Now, he definitely had blackmail material. Draco started laughing. He was so on to Potter. He probably thought that Draco would never find out, but he did, and he was going to make Potter's life hell. He would wait though, for the right time to tell everyone.

And then he would ruin him.

He would wait until they were dating, and Draco knew they were going to date, and it came out in the Prophet, because it would eventually come out. When he did, everyone was going to hound the hell out of both of them, especially her.

Then... _then_he would tell the whole world the truth.

That Harry potter wasn't dating a muggle. He was dating a witch.

Draco laughed evilly. The whole world would know that Potter didn't love muggles as much as he said, and then they would love him again. Potter did save his life though, so he guessed he could give him a nice job as one of the department heads. Preferably one that wouldn't put him in line to take over. With a smile on his face, Draco went back to thinking about who would be the next to backstab who in his shows.

* * *

When she arrived to Harry's, he did good on his promise and brushed most of her fur, which meant her hair would be extra smooth and silky when she would phase back. He had even hugged her around her neck when she first arrived to which she purred at and licked his face. He had laughed and hugged her harder, trying to escape her slobbering tongue.

When he brushed her fur, he ran his other hand through her neck, sometimes harder to scratch and sometimes just petting. She had been in heaven. He also kept talking to her the whole time, telling her more about Ron and Hermione and what she should expect. According to him, Hermione would be understanding toward their situation, but would be very inquisitive and she has no problems asking uncomfortable questions, although only if for a purpose. She was actually very tactful, just not if it kept her from something she wanted to know. Ron on the other hand, might have problems with things, and he might even react, but he'd get over it as soon as you explain. Then he'll pretty much act like nothing bad ever happened. His description made her think of Paul, just not as violent.

She snorted when she learned Ron and his girlfriend were gingers. Of course they would be. The way he talked about them she could just see a bunch of ginger boys running around, covered in dirt, while the little girl and her mom were both in dresses and aprons, cooking with large corny smiles on their faces. And baking sugar cookies. It made her disgusted a bit. Right as she was thinking that, harry had said "I owe a lot to the Weasleys. They took me in every summer and the holidays. They also gave me my very first present. Mrs Weasley also took care of all of us after the war," he said with what she could only call love in his voice. "Some of us were pretty bad after it, with the people we lost. She fed us homemade meals and talked to us. She must have cheered up half the population, even with her son dying." Leah immediately felt bad for making fun of them.

She had never felt bad for something like that before. She dropped her head and whined a bit at the feeling. She was used to feeling guilt after she did something particularly bitchy and ended up punching someone in the face, but she had never felt bad for her thoughts before. This imprinting was really cramping up her style.

He definitely got the wrong idea from her bowed head, because he tried to soothe her. "I'm fine now, don't worry. The war was like six years ago and we finished rounding up all the death eaters like four years ago. No need to worry." He looked away from her "Plus, since the bonfire, I haven't gotten any more nightmares. I think it's because of you." She almost cried. The feeling of her imprint telling her she helped him, was probably the greatest feeling she'd ever experience. The imprinting may cramp her style a bit, but right now it seemed like a good deal.

* * *

Harry and Leah had been sitting on the couch watching TV, when they heard the fireplace flare up. Harry smiled one of the brightest smiles he'd seen from him and rushed over. She got up much slower, and much more nervously. She heard a feminine "Harry!" followed by Harry going "oomph." She walked to the door.

After Harry and his friends greeted each other with a round of hugs they joked around a bit, while she just watched. It was amazing to her how good friends they were. There was an air of familiarity that was extremely close to what she had with the pack. Harry had explained that they fought together and had been through a lot, but she hadn't fully grasped the concept until now.

Nothing was taken seriously between them either. The only exception was that Ron seemed to be genuinely upset that he lived with Malfoy, they obviously still had bad blood between them.

Leah understood how much they missed each other, so she didn't interrupt until Hermione brought her into the conversation. Ron had tried to tease Harry about his place being dirty, but it was actually clean, especially for a guy. "I think it might have to do with having a girl here, without a woman it would never be clean," Hermione said and smiled at Leah.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Leah," Harry said, noticing her with a sheepish smile. She smiled back patiently. She wasn't upset. "This is Leah Clearwater guys, the girl I wrote to you guys about."

She liked how that sounded. It was too bad it wasn't how she wanted it to be. She shook hands and exchanged greetings with them. Hermione hugged her, which surprised and pleased her, but Ron seemed a bit colder to her.

They only said a few sentences of pleasantries, before Hermione got excited and started bouncing in her seat. Ron was in the middle of a sentence when she interrupted him, seemingly not being able to wait. "I researched imprinting!" She blurted out, then Harry and Ron laughed at her together.

Hermione gave a sheepish smile, but didn't stop talking.

"I couldn't find anything. I even floo called the libraries in Beauxbatons. I didn't bother with Durmstrang." She said with disgust. Then her expression changed almost instantly to someone paying the utmost attention "Tell me everything." A notebook and a pen seemed to appear in her hands as well.

Leah felt a bit unnerved at that stare. It was... predatory. Harry noticed and smiled at her, squeezing her hand. "Don't worry, she stays in her seat. She doesn't want her teachers," he pointed to themselves "to give her detention."

She tried not to laugh, but she failed when Hermione reach over the empty space and slapped his knee. It wouldn't have been that funny, except that Hermione did in fact stay in her seat.

Harry then looked at her, silently asking if she wanted to explain. She decided that she would, since she knew it better. "Well, you can only imprint on one person and it's very rare so we think it's only the one person in the world you can do it with. It happens when you look into their eyes..." She then tried to explain it as quickly as she could. Tried being the key word, since Hermione kept asking questions and writing down notes every other sentence. She didn't mind that at all, she found some of Hermione's theories very interesting.

The first major thing she noticed, was that she wasn't quite as smart as Harry made her out to be. She was quite clearly a brilliant girl, but her enthusiasm was the key point in her brilliance, not her intelligence. She tended to think her theories out loud and forcefully, making her opinion seem much more viable than any others. She probably was the smartest there, but secretly, she thought Harry could give her a run for her money if he was as studious as her. What convinced her of this, was one of the theories that Hermione thought, about how the imprint might not necessarily be able to happen with your true soul-mate, but the closest thing you'll come across in your life. What made her think Harry was just as smart, was that he thought up the same theory, almost instantly. The difference was that he brought it up as if it was only a possibility and he wasn't sure, while Hermione talked as if that was the only logical conclusion.

She would work on Harry's confidence when it came to academics, he was fine confident in most other areas.

Only once did the conversation turn sour, and that was when the word soul-mate was first brought up. Ron had been quiet the whole time, but everyone could see he was holding something in. Finally he blurted out, "are you cheating on my sister, Potter?!"

Hermione shouted, "Ronald Weasley! We talked about this!"

"No, Ron. Listen to the rest," Harry said tiredly, running a hand over his face. Leah growled at Ron for making her imprint upset, but he put his hand on hers, and she instantly calmed down. Ron scowled hard at this but didn't say anything. Well, he didn't succeed in saying anything; he started to, but Hermione's shin kick stopped it.

Ron stayed quiet for most of the conversation. He would occasionally scowl at something that was said, but he did sometimes seem like he was taking something in. Over time, he didn't scowl quite as hard, and even asked her a question once, not looking at her. It seemed hard for him to talk to her.

Leah decided that she admired Hermione. She was short, probably a head shorter than both Harry and Ron, but when she talked to them, she seemed the tallest there. She seemed like she tried pretty hard to have fun, and had a little trouble with it. Leah could tell that Hermione knew she was a bit awkward. She looked most comfortable around Harry and Ron, but she was trying her best to include Leah in everything.

The thing she admired most about Hermione, was how much the two boys listened to her. They made a lot of good natured jokes about her, but they never once doubted any of the information that she said, and always did what she told them. She had trained them well.

Ron, on the other hand, she did not really like. Harry quite obviously loved him, but she could tell that sometimes, it was more out of some deep seated loyalty Harry seemed to have for all things Weasley. Ron sometimes annoyed everyone in the room by saying something completely crass, or by complaining about things he didn't like. She had been having a very pleasant conversation with Hermione and Harry, in which they were trying to better explain the magic in bonds, when Ron groaned loudly and then proceeded to hound Harry to go play Quidditch with him.

It was obvious to her that Harry would rather stay and talk to them, but had gone with Ron anyways. She would have to make sure he didn't do that with her.

Harry hugged her and then walked out with Ron, holding a quaffle. She was proud of knowing the names of the balls.

Hermione looked over at Leah with an eyebrow raised to which Leah quickly blushed at. "You know, I've never seen Harry this affectionate."

"Really?" Leah said surprised. "He hugs me all the time. Like a few times a day."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up at that. "I've never gotten more than one hug in a week," she said, with a tiny bit of jealousy. "I don't even think Ginny gets much more than a hello and goodbye hug."

Leah tried, but no matter how much she willed her lips to stay down, they spread into the goofiest smile she'd ever worn.

Hermione smiled at her knowingly. "You don't want to just be friends like he thinks, do you?" She asked Leah gently.

"He doesn't really think that, I think he was trying to protect me a bit. Trying to not make me look like a girl that's trying to steal a boyfriend," Leah said softly and a bit guiltily. "He's amazing that way isn't he?" She shook her head. "I've never seen a more better guy in my life."

"I know what you mean," Hermione said. "Both Ron and I respect him more than anyone else."

"How come you never..." Leah started and just looked at where Harry had left.

Hermione seemed to understand. "Of course I liked him at one point. Practically every girl has," she said in amusement. "He hates that too. The reason I never tried was that he's always been really... skittish," she said pensively. "I'm not really sure what happened before he came to school with us, but the first time I hugged him, was after a year of knowing him. I hugged him before he left for the summer..." she said with a far away look in her eye. "He just... froze."

"Froze?" Leah asked curiously.

"It was like he had never been hugged before, like he had no idea what to do." Hermione raised her head and looked at Leah. "It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realized that I was probably right all those years ago. I don't think he'd ever been hugged before that."

Leah felt her heart seize in pain. Her imprint might have been mistreated when he was a child. The sadness that came over her was overwhelming. She would've had to sat down if she wasn't already.

"Never been hugged before?" She repeated weakly.

"I can't be sure, of course," Hermione said, straightening up. "But I'm willing to bet on it. I met his relatives. The most despicable things that pass for human beings that I've ever seen. When I met Harry, he was smaller than me. Tiniest guy in the school, actually. He looked underfed." Hermione shook her head, tears had started to form in her eyes. "His relatives, I met after second year. They are obese. I think they starved him while they ate everything," she said angrily. "Look, I shouldn't really be telling you any of this, Harry should have decided whether you should know, but I've never seen him as happy as he is with you. You need to get him away from Ginny," she said firmly.

Leah was incredibly surprised. It seemed too good to be true. "I thought you'd tell me the opposite to be honest."

"I love Ginny, don't get me wrong, but she's not good for him. Just like I wasn't either." There wasn't any sadness in her voice, which Leah liked. "She's a great girl, but she thinks of him just like the rest of the world, she thinks he's a hero." She grimaced. "Harry hates it when people treat him like a hero. It gives him expectations to live up to that he doesn't enjoy. Ginny and the rest of the world, think too much of him," she stopped and said pensively. "And also not enough at the same time."

"What do you mean?" Leah asked curiously. She was trying to get as much insight out of the girl as possible.

"Well, for one thing, they expect him to be perfect. They take and take from him, but never give. Even Ron and I catch ourselves doing it sometimes, to which we usually immediately try to stop. Ginny doesn't do it on purpose, but she's disappointed when he acts normal," Hermione shook her head in frustration. "That's the worst part, that's all he wants. He's always said that. All he ever wanted was to be normal, and Ginny isn't helping him. She does keep him content," she allowed. "And I'm sure that eventually she would give him the family he wants so much, but I think he deserves better. And I've never seen him as happy as he is here." Then she smirked. "And I don't think it's Malfoy that's making him so happy."

Leah changed her mind. She didn't admire Hermione, she completely worshiped her. She was not only an amazing person, but more importantly, she was an amazing friend to Harry. Leah wanted her around Harry. "Thank you," she said warmly. "Thank you," she repeated, tears coming to her eyes. "Thank you!" she said and launched herself on Hermione, who didn't hesitate in hugging the bigger girl back and immediately started crying as well. They both cried in sadness for Harry and they both cried in happiness for each other being there for him.

That's what Harry and Ron walked into when they came back from Quidditch. They looked at each other with their eyebrows in the sky and silently agreed to leave. They walked as quietly as possible toward the door. They would have succeeded if Ron hadn't tried to get a bag of chips on the way out. The bag made an extremely loud sound in the otherwise quiet house. The two girls jumped and looked at them, but didn't disentangle their arms from each other. Harry glared at Ron, but quickly made an escape plan.

"We forgot to put our brooms away! We'll be right back," he said quickly and pushed Ron out the door, stopping when Ron planted his feet and picked up a bottle of water before walking again. Harry grumbled. "Bloody git..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed a bit. "Ron's always like that," she said fondly. "Speaking of which, Ron can't know I said any of this," she said in alarm.

"I won't say anything," Leah said immediately.

"Oh good. He just has always wanted to see Harry and his sister together," she said, rolling her eyes at her husband again. "More like he doesn't want anyone else dating her. Anyways, he'll probably try to convince Harry to stay with Ginny, but he won't try anything extreme or anything."

Leah smiled thankfully, but kept her mouth shut in case Harry and Ron were listening. It proved to be smart, since they came in about five seconds later, peeking in to make sure no women were crying.

When they came in, Harry immediately went to Leah and hugged her, asking her if everything was okay, in a whisper in her ear. It never failed to make her shiver, and she thanked god that his friends were there or else she surely would've jumped him right there. "Just girl stuff," she whispered back.

Ron still looked at her a bit suspiciously whenever she and Harry showed the slightest bit of affection, but seeing Hermione get along with her so well, made him a lot more accepting. He did put his foot in his mouth again though. "Pregnancy hormones acting up again?" He asked Hermione.

Leah quickly went outside with Harry to cook the deer meat that the Cullens had given him. They had drank the blood out of it, so Harry thought it was a waste to just leave the animal there. Leah didn't like it much, but she didn't say anything. She would rather her imprint not hang around the Cullens too much, but they had proved themselves to be not that bad, so she'd tolerate them.

It was cold outside, but the fire seemed to warm Harry up, since he didn't shiver or anything, so she didn't have to excuse to go warm him up. She did go and peek over his shoulder to look at the meat, lightly putting the tip on her chin on him. He turned his head and gave her a quick smile. "Nice of the Cullens to give us the carcass, huh? They even cut it all up for us," he said happily. She made a face and hid it in his shoulder. "You know, I can feel you making a face on my shoulder," he said lightly.

"What! No way. I wouldn't even be able to tell if you did that," she said skeptically.

"I know, but you just confirmed it for me," he said smugly.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh fuck you, Harry. Fuck you."

He laughed happily, and it was such a sweet sound to her that she had to wrap her arms around his middle. He wrapped one arm around her arms and squeezed. She felt her tongue loosen and spoke without much thought. "You know, Harry, I never pictured you as being a very affectionate guy," she said, and squeezed him a little tighter.

Apparently, he had the same problem of saying too much. "I'm usually not. To be honest, my childhood was fairly deprived of much affection, without having parents. " Thankfully, he didn't say this with bitterness. "They didn't abuse me or anything, don't worry." She hadn't thought of it, but she would have killed them if he had been. "But... I've always wanted the affection. It was what I wanted the most in the entire world, for my mom to show up and take me away one morning." He spoke longingly. "She would've given me a hug every morning and a kiss on my forehead every night." He paused and prodded the meat a bit. She thought that he was done speaking, so she squeezed him a bit, but he kept talking.

"When I turned eleven and went to Hogwarts, I learned what happened to my parents and that they really were dead. I had kinda hoped my relatives were lying about them being dead, but that kinda made it real," he said sadly. "I kinda still hoped for the affection, but at the end of the year Hermione hugged me along with Mrs. Weasley... they both made me extremely uncomfortable when they did that." He shuddered a bit. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Plus she was worried her voice would crack from repressing tears. "I eventually got comfortable with their hugs and even enjoyed them. But by that time, Hermione was already in love with Ron. Ginny was the happiest girl I'd seen, and gave me hugs when we were friends, but that kinda stopped a bit when we started dating. Hugs usually turned into something else and I've never really wanted sex unless I was sure I was staying with the girl... so that turned into a whole ordeal." Harry sighed, shaking his head.

"Wait, you're a virgin?" Leah said in surprise, stepping away from him with her eyes wide.

Harry looked at her, then laughed loudly. "So that's.." He stopped, laughter taking over. He got his breath back. "So that's what you got out of all that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

She blushed and said, "no! I'm sorry, that was just extremely surprising. It shouldn't be, but it is... I'm sorry." She saw him suppressing laughter, and smacked him in the arm.

He laughed. "Well, I'm not really a virgin, but it wasn't completely by choice. I guess you could say I was drunk." He shook his head thinking about it. "I didn't mind, really. It was someone whose life I saved her son's life and then her whole family from prison after the war; she wanted to pay me back and got wind that I was a virgin, so she decided to 'teach' me." He smiled fondly. "She dosed my tea with lust and inhibitions erasing potions and then tried to teach me all she knew."

Leah raised an eyebrow. "It looked like it was good by that smile," she said, with only a tiny bit of jealousy.

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure she did it more for herself than anything, her husband hadn't had sex with her in years," he said, not at all seeming sad about it. "Anyways, I wouldn't do it again, but I wouldn't have said no to doing it the first time because of who she was."

"Who was she? And wait a minute..." Leah said looking at him with a disapproving expression. "She was married." Then something hit her. "Wait, hadn't had sex in years... How old was she?" She asked with her eyebrows raised.

"You can't tell anyone, my best friends have been asking me about it for years," he said pointing a finger in her face. She quickly nodded. Harry accepted that, and then smirked the most wicked smirk she'd seen. "Malfoy's Mom," he said with the widest shit eating grin.

She looked at him in astonishment and then they both laughed very very loudly. "Oh god! I don't even blame you for doing it. I would've done the same thing if I was you," she said in between gasps.

He nodded quickly and smiled happily. "She knew a lot too."

Leah sighed the last of her laughter out. "So what were we talking about?"

"Um. Oh, well, before your gutter mind interrupted us," he said with a smirk, while she poked him in the stomach, getting a small yelp. "Okay, okay. Well I was about to tell you, how nice it is to have a friend that I can be affectionate in. I thought I was over it, but now that you're here..." he said and looked at her, giving her a look that made her heart beat faster. It was the same tender look she always gave him. He walked to her and wrapped his arms around her again. "I can't stop hugging you now. I've always wanted this. I _love_this." He sighed and buried his face in her neck. "I could do this all day."

Leah felt very happy and sad at the same time. She was happy in his arms. She was happy that she met someone like him, the amount of love she felt from his was immense. She had always felt that the imprint beats everything in terms of love, but Harry might beat that. His capacity for love was the greatest thing she'd ever seen.

What made her sad, was how starved for love he clearly was. She didn't know everything about his girlfriend, but so far, it looked like she wasn't satisfying his needs. She had held herself back, because she wasn't his girlfriend, but Harry was clearly very, very starved for affection. She kept being a tiny bit more affectionate everyday, to see if he would stop her, but he seemed delighted. She didn't want to push her luck, but now that she knew all this... She was going to take every chance to show him someone loved him.

She just didn't think it'd be enough with their current boundaries. They saw each other a few hours a day, and she couldn't go and straight up start cuddling with him, because that definitely _would _make him feel guilty about his girlfriend.

She should be able to do more. She should be able to hold him at night and kiss him on the cheek every time he walked within range of her. She should be able to hold his hand when they walked. It was clear his girlfriend wasn't doing any of for him.

This, also made her conflicted. She didn't want to ruin Harry's relationship with his girlfriend and cause him pain, but what if helping him break the relationship would cause him less pain. She didn't know what to do, but she decided to think on it and talking to him before doing anything. The one thing that she learned that bothered him most, was when people did something for him without talking to him first. Thankfully, he told her about it before she did anything wrong. He told her this Five times. She had definitely gotten the point.

"I love you."

"I should check on the food."

They said at the same time.

Harry laughed and asked her to repeat what she said, stepping out of the hug. She changed her mind "I said anytime. Anytime you need a hug or anything, I'm here. I love it as much as you do, so please don't hold back."

He smiled a wide bright smile and gave her a quick but fierce half a second hug. "I should check on the food though."

She nodded, she heard Hermione and Ron start talking again inside. She found it weird that she hadn't heard them until now, and hadn't noticed the silence, it was probably some magic. She must have been really distracted by Harry. When they brought the food in, Leah saw Ron was a bit upset. Thankfully, it didn't look like he and Hermione were fighting, it looked more like he lost the fight already, and was sullen over it.

The rest of the time his friends were over were spent eating, showing Ron the television and informing Hermione about everything there was to know about the Quileute and the Cullens.

Her favorite part? Harry's little touches throughout the day. He seemed to be unconscious of it, but when she made a joke, he would push very lightly on her shoulder. When she was nervous he would squeeze her hand. When they were walking close he would bump shoulders. When she was horny, he would ravish her. Well, in her daydreams at least. She really ought to stop doing that, she decided.

Leah did manage to bond with Ron a bit through eating. According to both Harry and Hermione, she was the only one that had ever come close to beating him. She was sure that Jacob could beat him though.

There was a bit of news that Leah thought important, and that she should probably bring back to the tribe with her. Apparently their ministry, the magical one, was deciding whether to help take out the Volturi. She was extremely excited when she understood exactly what it meant. She had felt a flash of hope, before looking at Hermione once more. Her face was very skeptical, like if she didn't think they would help. Which she didn't, Leah was told. All three of them had no faith in the governments helping them.

When Ron and Hermione were leaving, Ron gave her a stiff nod, to which she cheekily replied "Bye Ronald!". His eye twitched. She wasn't offended, she'd gotten her fair share of eye twitches. Hermione however, rushed up to her and gave her hug that would suffocate her if she was normal.

Leah watched them go through the fire, standing next to Harry. Once they left, Leah addressed him, "Ron hates me."

"You bonded. I saw it," Harry insisted.

"Nope. It doesn't matter though. Hermione likes me, and she's the one with the pants in that relationship."

Harry simply nodded wisely.

"So what did you and Hermione talk about?" Harry asked, in what she thought was the most obvious curious-but-trying-to-hide-it voice.

"She told me to seduce you so you dump Ginny and get with me," Leah said bluntly.

Harry rolled his eyes and grumbled to himself. "Fine, don't tell me."

Leah chuckled and she opened her arms wide. "Aw, does someone need a hug?"

Harry moved to her and hugged her tightly while still grumbling. "Super secret girl stuff... Ron and I have secrets too..."

She enjoyed the hug and laughed at him. "I _did_tell you. Now I have to go home. See you tomorrow, Harry."

"Already?" he asked surprised, and little upset, she noticed. It made her day to see that.

"It's past one a.m..." she snorted. "Plus, your girlfriend is coming over tomorrow since she couldn't today."

Because she had to go to a party. Right.

Harry sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess." Was he sad his girlfriend was coming? Or Leah leaving? Hopefully both.

Either way, she grinned goofily and went to hug him again. That was a record seventeenth hug that day. She counted each one, feeling excited and pathetic. Then she left for her house, to get some sleep.

She would try to beat that record tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Leah was sitting with Jacob and Seth negotiating their next week of patrols. Well, that was always Jacob's excuse for these meetings, but since they barely ever change, Leah thought that he just used it as an excuse to come and eat her mom's food.

They had already said that there would be no changes and then they went right to eating. That was the end of the meeting.

Now, Seth and Jacob were talking about Nessie, while Sue and Leah were mostly just watching them, not really having anything to say. Jacob was in the middle of the tenth different achievement that Nessie did that week, when there was a loud crack outside. They all stopped what they were doing, looking around, alarmed. Then they heard footsteps and a knock on the door. Leah cautiously walked up and opened the door. Seeing who it was, she let out a loud "Harry!" and jumped up into his arms.

She hugged him hard, happy for the unexpected visit, and then jumped off. "Hey! Is everything alright? What are you doing here?" she asked, alarmed again.

He chuckled softly. "Actually, I come bearing gifts," he said, acting regally and bowing.

"Oh?" She got into it, raising an eyebrow. "And are these gifts satisfactory?" she asked primly, while trying not to squeal like a girl at the promise of a gift.

"Indeed, they are," he said, then paused. "Isn't it customary to invite someone inside when they come-"

"Whatever!" she said, losing all patience, then grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, where she quickly threw him on a couch. "Now give me my gifts," she demanded, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

He laughed at her. "That's cute."

She huffed, but had a very small smile she couldn't contain. The rest of the people in the house curiously came out to the living room. "I heard gifts," Seth said.

"You brought Leah gifts? Oh that is so cute," Sue cooed and petted Harry on head, while he blushed. Leah smirked at him.

"What's the occasion?" Jacob asked.

"Well, I had an idea the other day, and I've been working on it for a while," he explained excitedly, and then looked at Leah. "I got Hermione to help me with it when you and Ron were having your eating competition." He laughed with the two males, while Sue tutted at her daughter for her behavior. Harry then started again, almost bouncing in place. "I finished it this morning, I couldn't wait for you to come over so I had to come now," he said, and composed himself a bit when he glanced at the amused faces.

"Well? Stop with the suspense! Gimme! Gimme!" Leah said, shaking his arm a bit.

Harry laughed happily and brought out what looked like a thick piece of dark red yarn from his pocket. Everyone looked confused and brought their heads together to look closer. Without his fingers in the way, Leah saw that it was weaved in a pretty way. "Um. Is that string?" Leah said unsurely.

She winced, she didn't want to sound ungrateful. She looked up worried he'd be upset, but he just smiled wider. "Well, it's not just a piece of string. I worked on this for three days. I charmed it myself," he said proudly.

They looked up curiously. "What does it do?" Seth asked, poking it cautiously, as if expecting it to take come alive.

"Okay, well, give me your foot, Leah," Harry said.

Leah looked up, flustered at the request, but she nonetheless gave him her bare foot.

He quickly took it and wrapped it around her ankle, and tied it at the other end.

Leah looked at what she now recognized as an anklet. She looked at it fondly. Sure, she'd almost never wear it, since it would get ruined when she phased, but it was sweet nonetheless.

She smiled at him, "Thank you, it's sweet."

"Ah, but you're probably worried about phasing right?" He said, to which she gave a nod. "Pull on it, kinda hard."

She did, and it stretched with her, she kept pulling and it got a bit bigger than her ankle would be in wolf form. Her eyes lit up at that. "Oh! I can wear it anytime! Thank you!" she said happily and hugged him tightly.

"Uh huh, Ron said it should've been a choker instead, so it would turn into a collar." Harry snickered, to which everyone but Sue glared at. "Hermione slapped him in the head and that was that."

"Good," Leah said. She didn't much like Ron anyways.

"But! Do you really think I worked on three days for a stretchy anklet?" Harry said looking at her, shaking his head with disappointed eyes. "Do you really think so little of me?"

"What? Of course not, it's beautiful,- wait, it does more?" She said with her eyebrows raised.

"Of course! Okay this is the real gift right here. This was the idea, I thought it was pretty brilliant," he said now truly bouncing in his seat, making it squeak. "It's going to make all the other wolves jealous, I promise," he said smiling happily.

His mood was infectious to her, so she couldn't help but smile back, even if she was getting annoyed with how long it was taking him to get to the point. She just looked at him smiling, expectantly. She thought that if just stayed quiet, it might come quicker. She was right.

He took a deep breath and tried to explain "The anklet, it has a lot of magic in it. When you phase, when it stretches, it collects torn cloth. When you phase back, and it constricts again, it repairs them in the last place they were at, before they ripped. It keeps them absorbed while it's stretched, so they stay clean as well," he said, now calmed down a bit. Everyone had paused for a few seconds while they tried to process that. Seth was the first to understand, because his eyes got wide and he gasped.

Leah was the second.

She gasped and looked at him with big dark eyes. She froze. That meant no more changing a ton of times, no more ruining tons of clothes, no more buying panties in bulk... She launched herself at him, flipping the couch over and landing on top of him, where she proceeded to scream in his ear her thanks, in mostly incoherent sentences. "Oh thank you.. no more.. high heels.. naked men and panties..." She wasn't even sure what she was talking about on the last one.

He choked at what she said, but made no move to get her off him. He only reacted when her flailing rubbed him a bit too much, and was getting a reaction from him that he immediately tried to distract her from. She did in fact feel it though, and would have never gotten up if he hadn't known the exact thing to say to distract her.

"Hey Leah? Do you want to test it out?" he asked from beneath her.

Crafty little imprint. She would definitely be thinking about what she felt in his pants that night though.

"Yes!" She squealed and jumped up, quickly pulling him up after, hearing his shoulder pop a bit. She was too excited to care much, he could heal it with his magic or something.

She ran outside the door, while everyone else followed a bit more sedately.

"Okay, anything special I need to do?" she asked Harry.

"Nope, but you should go behind a tree when you phase back, just in case it fails."

She quickly nodded, relieved he thought of that. She took a breath and smoothly phased into a wolf, shifting forward and bringing half her weight on her front legs now. She looked around and saw no shreds of clothes. She barked happily at that and jumped on Harry again, licking him on the face. She jumped around wildly, while everyone laughed at her.

"Does it feel uncomfortable at all? It's not too tight? Doesn't pull on your fur?" Harry asked. "Those are all the things we thought of and tried to fix. I was just making sure they were working right." The wolf stared at him now and walked over, putting its head on Harry's shoulder. Harry was quick to hug its neck, scratching at it.

Leah closed her eyes in enjoyment and purred.

"Okay doggie, go phase back." She glared at him. "If I throw a stick over behind the tree, will you go fetch it?" Leah snapped her teeth at him, making sure it wasn't close to him. Nonetheless, she still trotted over and phased back. When she came around the tree she ran at Harry again and hugged him, fully clothed.

"Damn, I never thought my sister even knew how to hug," Seth said, sounding a bit jealous. "Did you know she could?" he asked his mom.

"I suspected she could... but I never could prove it." She teased, making a sad face.

Leah let go of Harry and walked over to Seth. "I'm sorry, Seth. I do love you, I would have hugged you if I knew you wanted me to," she said, looking at him apologetically. "Want one now?"

Seth looked surprised, but quickly agreed, holding his arms out happily.

Leah smiled at him and got closer. When she was within arms length, she quickly smacked him in the head with a decent amount of force, getting an "Ow!" and dropping him to the floor.

She cackled evilly and said "You're too gullible, Seth." Jacob and Harry laughed loudly at that. Even Sue cracked a grin at her pouting son.

"Well, I need to go back home. I'm supposed to go to the ministry with Malfoy for a quick meeting. I'll be back around six, if you want to come over," he said, looking at Leah.

"Okay. I need to go and phase back and forth in front of all the wolves anyways," she said happily.

He laughed and waved goodbye. Leah quickly jumped him and hugged him until she heard one of his ribs protest. She thanked him over and over again until he kissed her on the cheek with a quick husky. "My pleasure." in her ear. That shut her up. She spent the rest of the day making sure every wolf know she had the best imprint.

* * *

"Harry?" Ginny asked, when she stepped out of his floo.

"Ginny!" Harry jumped and went to hug his girlfriend, happy to see her. He was stopped by her hand, which she was holding out, hitting his chest before he could wrap his arms around her.

"Ginny?" he asked confusedly.

He stared at her questioningly, but she looked at him stonily, putting a hand on her hip.

"Um. Did I do something?" Harry asked worriedly.

"How about leaving without telling me? How about missing my games? And now I hear you have a girl hanging all over you?" she asked, her voice raising gradually and an eyebrow raising at the last question, looking like she was just begging him to step further in it.

"I wrote you about it all. I_ am _sorry about not being able to tell you before I left. It was rushed and you were busy, so I made sure to tell Ron and Hermione so they could tell you," he lied smoothly, trying to calm her.

"Oh?" she asked dangerously. "And the girl?"

Harry sat down on the couch heavily with a sigh. "I explained it to you, didn't I? It's a very complicated situation. I don't know what else to do..." he said exasperatedly. "I can't exactly just tell her I don't want to see her ever, even if it was true."

"Why the hell not, Harry?" Ginny asked, with her hands on her hips. "Just why the bloody hell can't you do it?" she asked, and then narrowed her eyes "Is this some kind of saving people thing that Hermione is always talking about, cause I won't buy that."

"Ginny, it _would_hurt her immensely to be away from me too long-"

"How do you know. How are you so sure that – that _slag –_ isn't lying?" Ginny interrupted.

Harry glared at her. "First, don't call her that, she's doing the best she can. And secondly, I made sure she wasn't lying."

"How can you tell? Did you use veritaserum on her? Because if you haven't, we should." She nodded to herself.

"You're not gonna like this..." Harry warned, ignoring the veritaserum comment.

"I already don't like this," Ginny deadpanned.

"Alright, well. There's a magical bond between us, Hermione confirmed it."

Ginny's reaction was exactly what he expected. She shrieked, "Like a marriage bond?!"

Harry winced at the volume. He never could quite get used to the volume that the Weasley women would shriek at.

"No..." he said hoping for some miracle that she wouldn't ask for more. He didn't get it.

"So it's not as strong right?" she asked, looking a bit relieved.

"Err..." Harry said, trying to make the truth come out without him saying it.

"Harry?" Ginny asked, now wide eyed and holding her breath.

"It's um. It's stronger," Harry said softly now, looking away from her.

Ginny just stared at him, breathing heavily. Finally she got out. "I've never heard of a stronger bond than that." Her voice was eerily even.

"Hermione looked through a lot of different bonds. This one is unique." He got up and walked to a desk, bringing out a letter. "Here is her research."

She nodded, taking it from him. She read some parts aloud to herself "...looked through department of mysteries...hints of slavery bond...signs of soul magic..." Here she stopped reading and put the letter down. "What did the girl call it?" she asked, not putting her gaze up from her lap.

"Leah called it imprinting." Harry noticed Ginny's scowl on Leah's name. "She says that I became the most important thing to her the first time she saw me, and that she becomes whatever I need her to be. That's why she's just a friend," Harry tried to assure her.

"That's rich," Ginny scoffed. "Promises she'd be the perfect little sex toy, just friends my arse," she grumbled.

"Ginny, I promise, that's all she wants. As long as I don't need her to be more, she won't want to be anything else. She drilled that into me."

Ginny sighed heavily. "Can't you like... distance yourself slowly?" Ginny asked with a bit of a whine to her voice. "If you let her go slowly, maybe the bond will just kinda fade?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't think it would work like that." Harry frowned. "It might work, but from what I see, it would be extremely painful for her."

"So?" Ginny asked petulantly. "We all make sacrifices."

"Ginny," was all Harry said. He leveled her with an unimpressed stare.

"Noble git," she grumbled. She sighed heavily, seemingly letting go of all her anger. "I still don't like it," she said.

Harry understood. He would be quite pissed if any guys hung around Ginny or Leah. He decided to ignore the fact that he thought of Leah's name. He was just protective of her because she told him she didn't want any guys. He was sure of that. Except not at all.

Ginny got up and walked over, sitting down beside him. She grabbed one of his hands and looked at him with a big eyes, the one that she always used when she wanted something. He couldn't help but notice how much colder her hand was than Leah's. Leah's temperature was always like a furnace, like a heat that made him feel her affection was tripled.

"So you've never kissed Leah right?" she asked hopefully.

"No," he said immediately, half wishing it was a lie.

"And she hasn't tried anything?" Ginny asked, this time she looked indecisive. Harry could guess why. She probably didn't know which one she wanted more. If Leah _had_ tried something, Ginny would have a good argument against her.

"No, not at all. She even wanted to meet you tonight to assure you she was just a friend, and of anything she could do to make you feel better," he said, grinning happily. He loved how considerate she was.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "She's coming? Tonight?" she asked. She got a quick nod. She looked like she was going to be mad, but then she just nodded with a small smile. "How long until she gets here?" she asked.

"Um, she should be here in half an hour?" he guessed.

"Okay!" Ginny chirped, seeming happy again. "Wanna take me on a tour of the house real quick before she gets here?"

"Sure," Harry grinned. He loved when she was happy, she was very lively then.

He happily moved to the kitchen and showed her all the muggle appliances he had. He showed her how to use them, but she seemed bored quickly with the muggle things, probably from living with a dad that had an obsession with them. He moved on the the living room and showed her the television. She seemed a bit more interested in this, changing the channels and widening her eyes when she saw that it played sound and images perfectly. She even went and prodded the screen to see if it felt like humans.

Later he moved on to the upstairs where they passed Malfoy's room. Ginny just shook her head at the door of his room. Harry explained "I got him to leave for a few hours. He's supposed to be training a bit for the auror tests. He's probably gone to a bar though, the lazy git," he said rolling his eyes.

He then led her to his bedroom, where he stood in front of his bed and brought his arms out, looking at her while she opened the window. "So that's it. That's the house. Unless you want to see the ward sto- oomph." In the middle of his sentence, Ginny had started walking towards him in a determined march. She put her hands on his chest and pushed hard, making him fall on his bed, cutting off what he was saying.

She then jumped on top of him and immediately started kissing him. He wanted to tell her that Leah was going to be there soon, but she stuck her tongue in his mouth and quashed down any thoughts he had. One of her hands was tangled in his hair, trying to make it even messier, while the other was grabbing the hem of his shirt.

He was just getting into the kiss, when she pulled up on his shirt. He moved to sit up, while she laid down next to him, breathing hard. No sooner had he removed his shirt, that she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him on top of her, bringing his head down for him to kiss her again.

They broke up to breathe for the third time when she started nibbling on his neck. He groaned and held her tighter. After a while, she grabbed his head and nudged him to do the same to her.

She moaned loudly when he sucked on the hollow of her neck. She was starting to breathe heavily and started squirming under him. She had her hands on his head, holding him tight to her neck. She had started trying to grind up on him, but it didn't seem to be working too well because she made a frustrated noise. She went limp for a second before grabbing his head by his hair and pushing down on it.

He was following where she was guiding him, when one of the hands on his head let go. Her hand pulled her skirt up, showing off her green thong, which she impatiently pulled to the side, then pushed down on his head harder.

He inwardly shrugged and thought that she deserved it for the Leah situation. He quickly went to work.

* * *

Leah was worried. She was going to be meeting her imprint's slut – err girlfriend – in a few minutes. She was in her wolf form, running towards his house. Jacob and Embry were patrolling so they were talking to her, trying to give her moral support. They sucked at it.

"Don't worry Leah, she's got nothing on you. One time in the sack with you and he'll be gone." Embry was saying. "I still remember your memories of you and Sam. You were amazing there, too bad Sam sucked." Embry said, shaking his head. She couldn't believe he was really talking about having sex with Sam right now.

At least Jacob was there. He would have something better to say.

"Oh yeah, remember how he tried to get it in, and he missed about ten times?" Jacob said, both roaring in laughter.

Leah sighed. She hated not having a girl in her pack. She was going to ask Jacob to try to steal the new girl wolf from Sam's pack.

"Oh! Oh! And remember when they tried doggy style for the first time?" Embry laughed even louder.

Leah grimaced. She had showed everyone that memory on purpose to embarrass Sam. If it hadn't been for revenge, she would have never thought of it again.

"Yeah yeah!" Jacob laughed. He then tried to mimic Sam's voice, putting on a fake gruff voice. "Hey Leah. What's this brown hole right here? POKE!" They then both laughed like a pack of hyenas instead of wolves.

Leah clenched up involuntarily at the memory.

"Okay okay. Guys. I'm about to meet my imprint's girlfriend. She's going to be trying to get him away from me. Help!" She screamed frantically.

"Sorry, Lee," Jacob said, only somewhat apologetic. He was still snickering too much to be properly apologetic.

She saw him go through a few train thoughts on how to make her feel better, when she crossed Harry's ward lines. She knew this because the sounds completely changed. She couldn't hear most of the normal wood sounds like the animals, bugs, and left over water dropping from leaves. She could also now hear inside the house. She really wished she couldn't.

Screams of ecstasy, that's what she was hearing.

They were all from the girl, who was now finally here. The sounds were perfectly clear to her because the window was open. She could not only hear her moaning and screaming, but she also heard slurping and licking sounds.

She thought she was going to be sick.

At least her pack mates weren't laughing anymore.

"Shit Leah. I'm sorry," Jacob said, mentally wincing. Embry was just feeling a lot of pity.

"Ginny, Leah just crossed the wards, we should be quiet at least," she heard Harry whisper after a loud sucking sound that sounded a lot like a plunger coming out of a toiler. Gross.

"Shut up Harry, you have silencing charms in the room," she heard his girlfriend say frustratedly. She then heard him continuing the disgusting thing. His girlfriend was then screaming even louder.

"Um. Leah. Don't kill her please," Jacob asked timidly, scared of her.

Leah was feeling incredibly jealous and heartbroken and more than a little angry when something in she heard in the girl's scream gave her pause.

"Hold on," she told Jacob absentmindedly. She paused and listened as much as she could. On the next scream she heard it. She narrowed her eyes and made sure she was hearing correctly. Then heard it again. The bitch was faking it. It might have sounded legit before Harry told her she was here, but now it was clearly fake, and way too loud. Leah laughed. Jealous little slut, she thought.

"Leah? You haven't cracked.. have you?" Embry asked in response to her laughter.

"You know what I'm thinking, you faggot. She's faking it. She's fucking faking it." She laughed again. "She's trying to piss me off on purpose."

"Yeah, we're just surprised it isn't working," Jacob said. She saw him thinking about how she would kill anyone that did that with his imprint.

"Nah, girls are smarter than that. If she's working this hard to try to keep him, then she's already losing him." Leah tried to explain the impossibilities of a girl's mind.

"Alright," Embry and Jacob both said in an equally confused voice.

_Males_. If only they could all be like her imprint. She was sure he'd understand.

She phased back to human, her anklet putting her clothes on her. She _loved_ that thing. She bet his girlfriend didn't get any gifts like that. That made her smug. Except for the oral sex. Leah would probably take the oral sex instead of the anklet. That deflated her.

There was a couple of chairs that hey had built together on the porch one day. They had taken some wood from the trees around his house and he had made up some tools with his magic. They had then tried to carve out different designs for their chairs. She had tried to do a wolf, while he did a lion. He had told her how the lion was the animal for his team or whatever in his school. He called it houses, but that sounded weird to her. Her chair was better than his, but he vehemently denied it. He had tried to use magic on his and make it better, but she had snatched his wand before he could. Cheating wizards.

What she loved most, was how much work Harry had put into hers. He had fixed hers up for her, so that she could go there to take a nap between patrols if she needed it. There were soft earmuffs that blocked all sound, and goggles that blocked all light. She had thought more than once that she should just always sleep there from then on. The chair itself was so comfortable that she had fallen sleep on him more than once while they were sitting there talking or playing games.

Leah had put on the earmuffs as soon as she sat down, so she didn't have to listen to his slut scream anymore. She stayed on her chair for about ten minutes while smiling softly and staring at the lion chair. She didn't bother knocking, they knew she was there.

Harry rushed out of the front door, startling Leah. He had a chagrined expression on his face. He was aware she heard everything, obviously.

"I'm so sorry, Leah," was how he greeted her. She could hear the remorse in his voice. "I didn't realize she was doing it on purpose until I looked up and saw the window open, I thought it was silenced." He couldn't seem to meet her eye and was fidgeting with his hands.

"It's fine, couples do that, Harry," Leah said, trying to grin at him, but only managed a weak smile.

"I'm sorry," He mumbled again.

This did bring out a little chuckle out her. "You did nothing wrong," she said softly.

He shrugged and kept looking down. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, he made to move towards her a few times but stopped himself. He looked like a shy blushing school boy. All in all it was incredibly cute.

"Are you alright Harry?" Leah asked.

"I brushed my teeth," Harry blurted out. Then he widened his eyes, seeming surprised at what he said, then he promptly turned the reddest she'd ever seen anyone blush.

Now she had to laugh. She rarely ever saw an agitated Harry. "Don't worry Harry. People do that all the time you know." She snickered. He still seemed worried. "I'll still hang around you."

She was incredibly happy by how relieved he seemed at that. She loved that he wanted her around as well.

"Would it be gross for you if I hugged you?" Harry asked, looking away again.

Leah smiled brightly. "Of course not." She stepped toward him first and wrapped him tightly. She heard him sigh and his body seemed to lose a lot of tension when he wrapped his arms around her. "I"ll always hug you. No matter what," she said softly.

When they pulled away Harry's eyes looked brighter. Leah congratulated herself for cheering him up. And as sad as she was that he was so tense after spending time with his girlfriend, secretly she cheered and hoped it would end soon.

"Ready to go meet her?" he asked her. Now that he wasn't looking away and mumbling, she was able to smell his breath. It smelled mostly of toothpaste, but there was a little hint of vagina underneath that. It was gross. Her imprint should never have to do that. Especially when she knew that he had gotten nothing back.

She was sad and a bit heart broken when she had to listen to them, but for some reason, smelling her on him just pissed her off.

If his girlfriend wanted to play like that, she was going to play like that as well.

She purposely gave a little nose twitch, alerting Harry she could smell it. Harry looked horrified, which almost made her lose her resolve, but years of being a bitch made her very good at ignoring guilt.

"You can still smell it?" Harry asked, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Yeah, it's fine though," she said, with a dismissive wave. He went ahead and waved his wand over his mouth anyways. Then she bumped his shoulder with his. "At least you got some, right?" she joked, knowing full well he didn't.

Harry looked at the ground and shrugged.

"You didn't?" she asked in fake surprise, even raising her eyebrows. She decided to take a chance. "No? Oh, it's probably my fault then. She would have done it if I hadn't showed up," Leah said nodding to herself as if sure it was true. He squirmed and kept his face down. Perfect. Leah almost fist pumped. Though she wasn't sure if she wanted to cheer that his girlfriend was a bitch, or slap the girl for not treating his imprint right.

Her step faltered though when she saw the sadness on Harry's face. She cursed herself for putting him through that. She rushed over and hugged him tightly again. That seemed to help. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't even be talking about any of that."

"Hey, I'm not quite that delicate, you know." He chuckled. "Just cause I'm not an immortal shape-shifter and everything," he mock grumbled.

"It's not because you're a mere mortal." She shook her head in disappointment. "It's cause you're white," she deadpanned.

That brought out one of the loudest laughs she heard from him. She hoped the bitch could hear them.

"It's the English. We're all pasty," Harry said smiling, opening and holding the door open for her.

When she walked in, she saw Ginny standing next to the counter with a wine glass in her hand. "So. You're Leah, huh."

Leah nodded. "Yes, hi. It's nice to-" Leah started.

"Nice to what? Try to steal my man? What bitch?" Ginny screamed suddenly. Leah was taken aback, but recovered quickly.

"I'm not trying to- ah!" Leah was shocked. The girl had slapped her mid sentence. The midget had slapped her. She was going down.

Leah brought her fist up and smashed it into the girl's nose, bringing up a river of blood. She saw the girl going for her pocket and acted quickly. In a move that she saw in the fake professional wrestling shows, she lunged at her prone form, hanging right over the girl for a split second, and then dropped, bringing both elbows right on the girl's boobs. The girl coughed from the assault, showering the floor with blood. Leah wasn't done, she quickly grabbed both of her nipples and twisted as hard as she could, making the girl scream out in pain.

She looked toward the side to see Harry cheering for her loudly. He was shouting, "Kill her! Kill her! She's a bitch! I only want you, Leah!" Her heart soared. She kept on cheerfully beating up on the little girl.

"Leah?" she heard Harry say.

"Huh?" she said. She was brought back to the present.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. She looked around. His girlfriend was still standing next to the counter. She didn't seem to be paying attention, just staring at the wine glass and sipping on it, and seeming a bit bored. Harry was staring at Leah in concern.

"Oh. Yeah, sorry about that," she said, blushing a bit. "Yes. I'm Leah. Ginny, right?" she asked, holding out her hand. She saw Ginny frown after shaking hands, probably due to her temperature. Although they couldn't have shaken hands more more than a millisecond before they both let go as fast as they could. Leah childishly wiped her hand on her shorts when they weren't looking.

Dinner with Harry and Ginny wasn't nearly as bad as she expected. She had forgotten how Harry had told her that Ginny wasn't a very touchy person anymore since their war. They didn't hold hands or anything in front of her.

The dinner was really good, since it was made by Harry. She had learned that he could cook a lot better than her early on, and let him do most of it. He had tried to teach her, but she was always distracted by watching him, so it didn't take.

What was surprising was that Ginny didn't immediately ask Leah about her imprinting. For the first hour they mostly talked about Harry's work and Ginny's Quidditch team. Most of it flew over her head, she didn't understand much of magic yet, but she caught a few things that she wouldn't have understood a couple of weeks ago.

Her forte was Quidditch, since it was not only the most interesting, but one of the things that Harry was most passionate about when he talked. That automatically made her passionate about it as well. It also helped that it was such an awesome game.

"... and our seeker was amazing that day, we didn't know what came over her. She got the snitch in only forty minutes! That's better than she's had all year," Ginny said with awe in her voice. She looked at Harry when he started laughing.

"Are you kidding me? The snitch was behind her back for twenty minutes. Twice it even flew about five feet in front of her and she didn't see it," Harry said in disappointment.

Leah could see how they had gotten together now. Harry probably loved that she was so into the game. Leah always saw Harry light up when she paid interest in the game these past weeks.

"What? Really? Wait, how do you know?" Ginny asked, surprised.

"Owl ordered a pensive memory of your games," Harry said.

"Oh that's so sweet," Ginny cooed. Leah almost fake vomited. Then Ginny reached over and kissed him on his cheek. Leah almost really vomited. Especially when she saw Ginny's little smirk, that thankfully, she tried to hide.

She spent most of the time there just watching Harry and trying to make him laugh when his girlfriend wasn't looking. Ginny kept monopolizing the conversation, barely letting him talk, and definitely not letting Leah talk. So, when she was still talking about her team or how ginger her hair is or something like that, Leah would flick little pieces of food into Harry's mouth when he opened his mouth to eat. He didn't catch her the first time, but he had a look on his face like he wasn't expecting the taste. When he caught her the second time, she looked away and over-acted looking inconspicuous. She could tell Harry was fighting a laugh. Leah thought this was a major victory.

Ginny had apparently been talking about Leah's imprinting for a while, because the next question she caught was "Is there any other people who imprinted and stayed friends?" She had asked.

"Well, only five other people that I know imprinted as well, out of almost twenty now. Three of them are dating now, but all were single when it happened. Well, the people imprinted on were single, one of the people that imprinted had a girlfriend, but he broke it off quickly." Ginny tutted at that. A month ago she would've bonded with her over that. Now, she thought it was naive. "The other two imprinted on toddlers, so right now they act more like parents or older brothers."

Ginny had a horrified face on. "They fell in love with toddlers? Gross!"

"No, no. It's not like that. Imprinting isn't necessarily falling in love. It's making someone the most important person in your life. You live for whatever they need." Her gaze slowly drifted over to Harry and she looked at him with all the love she felt for him every day. "If they're toddlers, you want to protect them and teach them. If they're already dating someone, you want to be there as their best friends to confide in." She reluctantly slid her gaze to Ginny. "Neither of the guys have even the slightest romantic feelings for the two toddlers."

Ginny was quiet for a moment. "Does this mean that you'll be able to date someone else?"

"No," Leah said immediately. Ginny started to look upset so she explained "There's no need, really. As long as Harry's happy, I don't have any of those needs." That was a half-truth. Men would always have those needs, and she wanted to satisfy his. "Did you know that Quil's pretty much not gonna masturbate for like twelve more years or so." Leah grinned at Harry.

"What? No way, that's impossible," he said, grinning and leaning forward. "No guy can go that long."

"Swear to god. He hasn't since he imprinted on her," Leah said laughing.

"Ouch. Poor guy," Harry said sympathetically.

"It's actually not bothering him. And you have no idea how much more productive he is than all the other guys. I swear if guys stopped wanking, we'd have solved world hunger by now," Leah said shaking her head in mock disappointment.

At that point, Ginny had cut them off, speaking about something else. Leah was too busy picturing Harry relieving himself that way to notice what she was talking about.

She left soon after, claiming she was tired, and that she didn't want to ruin their little time together. That was a lie. She wanted to sit there with a ruler between the, making sure that there was always a foot between any parts of their bodies. She only left to be nice to Harry. So she left, phasing and showing Jake and Quil all about the girl, hoping to get some sympathy.

* * *

Leah had gotten home in a mood. She had held it during dinner and the run there, but it was all coming out now. She was very depressed. When she had heard Harry giving Ginny oral sex, at first she felt agony. It turned into a challenge really quickly though, so she didn't have much time to dwell on it.

But now, the thought of his beautiful innocent mouth on that disgusting ginger... it was hard not to phase thinking about it. Her confidence had also been shaken there. Before this, she had fully believed that he would end up with her soon. That he would want her as much as she wanted him because she was so extremely willing. Isn't that a guy's dream? A girl who would do pretty much anything at all? She thought that maybe she didn't stack up. That guys wanted a _pretty_ girl that would do anything. Emily was wrong about her being beautiful.

Her hair was short now, almost like a boy. She detested how she had to cut her long beautiful hair because of her phasing. Waist long hair and phasing didn't mix. She would end up looking like a huge poof ball. So she had cut it as long as would be feasible. Which is barely enough to not be buzzed.

She looked in a mirror for a while. She took in her appearance. She saw her arm flex a bit. Thankfully, her arm didn't look manly, it looked lean, but still muscular. She flexed and grinned. She decided that she had enough of a pity party. She was _Leah fucking Clearwater_. She didn't do pity parties. She would kick the people that did it in the ass. She grinned thought back to the dinner. Now she remembered how he laughed with her, never with Ginny. How it was Ginny crying in ecstasy, not him. How his girlfriend never let him talk, and how animated he was when he talked to Leah. She grinned to herself wider. It seemed that Harry's girlfriend made him unhappy.

As her imprint, she would fight against anything that made him unhappy. This time with extreme prejudice.

* * *

Harry waved to Ginny as she walked through the green flames of the floo. He didn't even try to hug her goodbye this time. It just didn't seem to mean as much to him anymore. He did get to kiss her one more time after Leah left, but it seemed more like he was doing it out of duty than getting any real enjoyment out of it.

Since he had noticed what Ginny had done to Leah by putting the window open before seducing him he just couldn't help but be mad at her every time they touched. It was like her touches were almost repulsing him now. The weirdest thing was that it wasn't the first time that she had done something to make him angry – they had dated for more than half a decade, it was inevitable – it that he was reacting so strongly to it. Would he not have done something like that in her position? He would have probably done something worse.

For a while he contemplated if it was the bond affecting him like this. His dreams had slowly been having less and less Ginny in them, and more and more Leah. Every time it happened, he took a cold shower and tried to use occlumency to keep those thoughts locked up.

It wasn't helping at all.

She was starring in more and more dreams. Lately they had even been daydreams before he could catch himself. It was all terribly maddening. What made him feel the most guilty was not practically cheating on Ginny, oddly enough; it was that he might be hurting Leah by staying with Ginny. How that made sense, he had no idea.

That's how he felt though. Every time he almost cheated on Ginny, he didn't think about hurting his girlfriend. He thought about the girl that wasn't yet. He shook his head. It was thoughts like those that kept coming up. 'Yet,' he had just thought. He often caught himself thinking that it was inevitable that he would end up with Leah. He even tried thinking about it logically, trying to prove it was just the bond that was affecting him.

It backfired. Whenever he tried comparing the two girls logically, Leah won on almost all accounts. Ginny won on a few things, like how long they'd been dating... and how it still wasn't going anywhere after that long. Harry growled and told the bond to shut up.

He sighed, slightly defeated. He didn't want to face it because he didn't like being a quitter, but he was going to have to break up with Ginny whether he tried dating Leah or not. It wasn't exactly fair to her. Especially when he just caught himself smelling the napkin that Leah had wiped her mouth with. He blinked. That was kinda creepy. He blamed the bond. It was getting desperate, he decided.

He needed to talk to someone about this. Ron and Hermione were out, being Ginny's brother and best friend respectively. One would punch his face off, and the other would yell it off. Then they'd probably team up and heal it back together so the other can curse it off. Then they'd switch.

Who else could he talk to? Ginny was obviously out. All the Weasleys were out. They were her family. Most people that he knew had the same problem. The only ones that wouldn't, would be people he had only a passing relationship with, like the professors.

He would rather not go to one of the professors about relationship problems. He could just picture it.

"_So Headmistress McGonagall... I don't know which girl I should shag, do you have a suggestion?" _

"_Yes, Mr. Potter. Detention. And then the hospital wing to check your brain, if you thought that after saying that I wouldn't transfigure you into a rat, charm you impervious, and then let you pass through a hippogriff's bowels!"_

Harry blinked. That was scary even as a line in a daydream. He could go to Hagrid...

"_So Hagrid, I have a problem with these two birds, you see one imprinted on me-"_

"_Oh! A bird! Yeh see, this is wha' you do. Yeh havta sit on 'er. Until she 'atches." Hagrid nodded seriously. "Then she'll kno yer 'er dad."_

_Harry shook his head, "no, no. She's not a bird, and she _already_ imprinted on me.-"_

"_Well why didn' you jus' say so!" Hagrid boomed. "Well, if she's already 'atched and imprinted, all yeh gotta do, is get some good ol' rats, chew on 'em for a while and feed them to 'er. I reckon you oughta make sure to make it nice and sof', else she'll throw 'em up. Great critters those rats."_

Maybe not... Slughorn was always trying to talk to him if he was desperate enough; and he _was _desperate enough.

"_So Professor... I have a problem. I can't decide on which girl to-"_

"_Harry my boy! Yes, yes. I see the problem. I, myself, was caught between two women before!" Harry thought he was more likely to be physically caught in like a hallway between two people, but he didn't say anything. "On one hand, Miss Weasley would be perfect to get Quidditch tickets through... Hm... This reminds me of..."  
_

Okay, Harry stopped that one before he could pick up steam. That wouldn't be helpful either.

Harry sighed. It was hopeless. He had no one to talk to about this.

He blinked. Oh! The Cullens! He grinned and apparated to their house.

Empty. Probably hunting. He'd come back later. He went back home and decided to text them to see how long they would be gone.

_Alice,_

_When do you get back? Need to talk about imprinting-_

His phone got a text mid way through typing. It was from Alice.

_H,_

_We get back in a few minutes, but I want to warn you. We are all unanimously convinced you should go with Leah already. Want any specific meat for us to bring you?_

_-A_

That went better than he thought. Well, that almost convinced him. He needed just a bit more reassurance, and he thought of the perfect people he could ask about this. The imprints! His fellow imprints, they knew all about what he was going through. He would go and ask them tomorrow.

For now though, he could definitely use some more deer meat like last time.

He got another text.

_H,_

_Bringing you back deer. You're welcome. _

_-A_

Well. That was an awfully good gift she had there. He wondered why he never saw her using it on him before. She should have seen him coming, or that he was a wizard or any number of things. He would ask her why that was. Maybe she had some theories.

He got a text.

_H,_

_We do have some theories. It's because Leah imprinted on you. I can't _see_ any wolves, and I can't see any of their imprints either. It's probably the bond making their lives be so interwoven with their wolves. I _can_ see texts that I'll get while you're not next to me, though._

_-A_

Huh. Nice theory. Maybe he should call her whenever something important came up so she had more warning. Maybe not, he'd think on it later.

Another text. He was feeling very popular right now.

_Pottrr, _

_I wnt 2 my girlfrunds housE I M SRAYING THERE TONIT. DO N_ot bothr.

-Draco Malfoy.

Sanctimonia Vincet Semper.

Harry laughed. He pictured Malfoy texting. He snickered. It didn't surprise him though that Malfoy would take the time to make sure his own name, and family motto were perfectly typed. He either took an hour doing that, or asked his girlfriend to finish it. He shook his head and snickered to himself for a few minutes, thinking of what Malfoy would say if Harry asked him for help about Ginny and Leah.

A quick look at the clock said it was late enough to try to catch some sleep. Alone, again. He quickly changed and tried to get some sleep. He grabbed a pillow and pretended it was Leah, quickly falling asleep.

* * *

It was one in the morning. Leah was laying on her bed, bored. Harry's girlfriend might have gone home by now, so she felt better. She decided not to jump his bones right away, but she would wait for an opportunity to hint that he could do better.

Right now, he was probably laying in bed unsatisfied, he could do better than that.

She wished it was her turn to patrol for once, so she could check in on him, but it was Seth's this time. She decided to go with him for a bit anyways.

His room was empty so he was probably already running, or maybe coming from visiting his vampire idol. She went outside and phased quickly. She noticed it came easier to her now that she imprinted.

The first thing that hit her was Jacob, Embry and Quil trying to teach Seth where the clitoris was. The worst part? This is the third time she phased in on them having this _same_ conversation.

She wasn't even ruffled. "None of you will ever find it, you need a brain for that," she said, managing to keep a mental picture of her own away from them. "Have any of you checked on Harry tonight?"

"I definitely found it that one time with Kristen behind the bleachers. No one has that response if you don't find it," Embry thought proudly.

"She was faking it, you idiot," Quil thought laughing.

"Hey. Horny teenagers," Leah said, making a mental picture of her grandmother snapping her fingers in their faces. "Focus. Harry. Checked on him? Tonight?" She said, making sure to talk in caveman language for them.

"Yeah, actually. He seemed to be having a nightmare or something, he didn't even wake up when I walked through that line he said was the protection," Jacob thought, thinking of how awesome it was to have magical protections. "He usually stirs a bit and I duck out fast. Hey do you think we could get him to set one of those up against vampires around La Push?" he asked eagerly.

"I'm going to check on him. I'll throw stuff at his window, if he doesn't wake up, I'll go in," she thought, more to herself than to the boys. "Oh, and no he can't do that. He said that he bigger the area is, the more energy it takes him." She recited in a lecturing voice. She was already running full speed towards Harry's house.

Thankfully she made it there very quickly, sparing her watching her brother imagining himself eating out a girl for much longer. She'd gotten used to this aspect of phasing a while ago, but still, she could do without.

True to Jacob's word, Harry didn't wake up when she crossed the wards. His window was still open from earlier and she could hear him flailing and making little cries. Her heart clenched. Because of her anklet, she was able to jump up to his window as a wolf and phase midair. Without it, she'd have jumped in his room naked.

Her feet landed almost silently on the floor, but that was enough to wake Harry up. He started and reached immediately for his wand, with a look of fear on his face. He didn't have his glasses on, so he probably couldn't see it was her. He was going to attack her.

She was quick enough to stop him, since he was blind and had just woken up. She jumped on top of him, pinning his arms over his head, so he wouldn't try to use them against her. "Shh, it's me, Leah."

Before she finished the sentence, Harry had tried to get his hands out of her grip, and then had cocked his head back. She recognized that he was going to try and headbutt her, but he had thankfully realized it was her before that happened. It was probably the hot skin that made him realize, on top of her voice.

"Oh. Sorry," he said, breathing heavily. She let go of his hands and got off him. He sat up and put his glasses on. "So what are you doing here?"

"You were having really bad nightmares," she said softly. "I usually just put my head in the wards to see that you're alright, but I could hear you thrashing from there."

He grimaced. "I'm fine, really. It's nothing."

"It didn't seem like nothing, Harry," she said, grabbing his hand.

He pulled out of her hand and said forcefully, "yes. It was,".

Leah sighed. Her imprint suffered in silence, just like she used to do. She would have done the same thing in his position. So what would she do to herself?

She hoped this would work. "I had a nightmare the other day about -"

"That's not going to work," he cut her off. He was a quick one. A stubborn quick one. He slumped and looked at her guiltily. "Sorry. It's just- that's not going to work."

"Alright. Want me to leave?" she asked reluctantly.

"You don't have to. I'll be awake for a while now."

"Sorry about waking you up," she said, sitting on the bed, a little way away from him.

"No, you helped me, you stopped it before it could get worse," he said shaking his head. "Thank you."

Leah looked at him triumphantly. He looked at her confused for a second, then he rolled his eyes. "Shut it."

"Uh-uh," she said grinning widely. "It's not going to work right?" She lied down, basking in her glory. "I'm a fucking genius."

Harry finally laughed. "Fine, fine, I guess you earned it. It _was_ a nightmare, obviously," he said, rolling his eyes. "But it wasn't nearly as bad as they used to be right after the war, just a small one about ending up alone. Nothing uncommon even," he said, looking embarrassed about saying his fears out loud. "A lot of people have that same nightmare."

"I had the same one all the time, after Sam left me." She nodded, then looked at him sharply. "Don't tell anyone." He just rolled his eyes at her again. "But don't worry, I'll pretty much stalk you for the rest of your life, so you won't be alone," she said, now a bit embarrassed herself.

He turned on his side to look at her. She saw a bit of vulnerability for the first time. "Promise?" he asked, using the full force of those green eyes on her. She'd have promised anything anyway.

"I promise. I'll always be here, as long as you don't send me away."

"I promise I won't do that either then," he said softly.

"Thanks," she whispered, scooting a bit closer.

She thought that they might have kissed at that moment, but she didn't want him to cheat on his girlfriend, so she distracted them both. She looked away from him a bit to compose herself. "So what happened after I left?"

He looked at her a bit startled. "Um. Nothing I guess. She left fairly quickly."

"Oh. I thought she'd want to spend some alone time with you," Leah said furrowing her eyebrows, seriously worried at the girl's sanity if she didn't want to spend time with Harry.

"Yeah, I'd thought so too," he said, rolling onto his back.

She just had to say it. "What is_ wrong _with her?" she asked. She couldn't have kept that one in.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I would have stayed with you, if I was her," Leah said, blushing in the dark a little. "I'm not trying to hit on you on purpose, it's just the honest answer," she said quickly.

"No, I understand. Don't worry." They were silent for a while.

He turned to look at her with his jaw clenched. "Sometimes," He said slowly. "I feel very guilty about what I'm doing to you."

"Being amazing to me?" Leah said confused. He _had _been amazing to her.

"No. Sometimes, and you can't deny it, I take advantage of your imprinting on me," he said, his jaw still tight. "It feels like I'm _using_ you," he said, pain marring his features now. She was torn between comforting him and listening to the rest. "I just feel like every time I ask you to stay longer, or hug you, or when I kiss you on the cheek..." He was starting to rant a little, so she squeezed his hand. He stopped and looked at her sadly. "It feels like I'm not only cheating, but I'm leading you on all the time," he said softly.

"Harry." She caressed his name. "You are in no way leading me on. This isn't a normal relationship." She explained patiently. "I won't be disappointed by anything you ask from me. I _want _to do anything you want. You're actually _hurting_ me when you don't ask something you want from me." She was caressing his face by then. She thought about stopping before the intimacy of the act got them carried away, but she had set a clear line.

"It still feels wrong. I wish I could give you everything back. It's not fair that you give so much and get nothing back," he said sadly.

She sighed and shook her head. "You're not getting it, are you?" She gave up and decided to simply comfort him. "I'm getting a lot more out of this than you are, don't worry," she whispered to him.

He let out his breath, all the fight going with it. He snuggled deeper into her. "Would it be cheating on Ginny if I ask you to sleep here?" He mumbled against her neck.

Beating loud enough that she was sure he could hear it, her heart was about to burst out of her ribcage. "No," she said quickly, and a little louder than she meant to. She shook her head. "Err. I don't know. I don't think so."

"I think it is," Harry said, sounded dejected. She was about to protest, maybe even beg, when he interrupted. "Would you be disappointed in me if I ask you to anyways?" He lifted his head and looked at her. He looked so vulnerable, and hopeful.

"Never," she said softly and kissed his brow. "Just sleep." She stroked his hair, making his eyes flutter sleepily. She felt incredibly corny saying, but it felt right. "I'll hold you all night."

Harry smiled sleepily, and went to kiss her cheek. It gave her a tingle throughout her body and she shivered. She went back to stroking his hair and saw him already asleep.

"I love you Harry."

With that she cuddled up to him and closed her eyes. She had an urge to kiss him while he was asleep, but she wasn't going to ruin this.

She was with her imprint, holding him while he slept. Nothing could ruin this.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Half the time something got ruined in Leah's life, she could point straight to Sam. It used to be with bitterness that she thought this, but not anymore. However, just because she wasn't bitter, didn't mean he wasn't going to get his ass kicked for waking her up, howling loudly, during the best night of her life.

She heard the howl once and mentally told herself to punch him in the face. She heard him howl once more, a short, clipped one and then a long howl. Vampires. That meant he caught a fresh scent. Grumbling, she tried to get out of Harry's grip without waking him up.

"Wuzz 'oin on?" Harry asked her sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his fist in a cute way. She almost got back in bed and let Sam fight by himself. Her conscience stopped her, of course.

"Sam caught a fresh scent. I need to go for backup," she said, pushing him on his back. "Go back to sleep, Harry."

"Huh?" he asked, still waking up. "Oh! Vampire!" he grinned and jumped up.

"Yes, but you're going back to sleep and let us handle this," Leah told him sternly.

"No," he cheerfully refuted her. "This was one of my assignments. Have to go see this," he said, putting on shoes.

"Harr...eeeeee," she trailed off. She was about to protest, but she couldn't talk anymore. He was changing his shirt and she could see his back. It was full of scars. Not enough to be disgusting, but just enough to be incredibly hot. Her throat was dry and she itched to run her hands on them. Much too quickly, he pulled on a long sleeve shirt, hiding even his forearms from view.

"Alright, lead the way," he said and turned around, smiling.

"No. Harry. I know you can take care of yourself, but you shouldn't have to be put in danger-" He cut her off.

"Leah, I can pretty much kick all of your asses, so just start going, you're wasting time." His irritatingly charming smile had not dropped at all.

Leah huffed. She thought she could kick his ass if she wanted to. "You know. I'll just go. I'm not waiting for you and you have no way of running next to me, so I don't know why I'm still even talking to you," she informed him and stuck out her tongue. He laughed, probably thinking she was kidding, but she just jumped out the window, phasing midair and landing at a run. She shot off immediately to where Sam was showing her, leaving him gawking she was sure.

She loved running, she was the fastest of the pack. No one could keep up with her. The vampires couldn't keep up with her either. She had yet to race against the mind-rapist, who they say is the fastest, but she was confident she could beat him.

One of the things that made her even faster was the fact that she only had to look forward whenever she ran, since there was never anyone that could attack her from behind or even the sides when she was going full speed.

"Hullo!" she heard from her side.

She almost ran into a tree. She turned her wide astonished eyes towards Harry, who was flying next to her silently on a broom, grinning widely. She couldn't say anything, so she just gawked at him. He grinned wider. She narrowed her eyes. Harry leaned to the side and flew over her, upside down, grinning down at her cockily.

Cheeky imprints.

She growled at him, displeased. He just stared at her more. She finally gave him a great big bark and pointed behind her, telling him to go back. He just turned his mouth to a mocking sympathetic smile and reached down with one hand to pet her condescendingly. She breathed through her nose angrily. If he wasn't her imprint, she would have bit his hand off then.

She was going to have to do something to him. She couldn't beat him up because he was her imprint... maybe tie him to a bed and leave him there for a while until he learns. Hmm. Naked would be best. Just so that he's cold, therefore making him learn the lesson better. No other reason. And maybe if she just touched him a bit- "Leah! Fucking gross!" Seth screamed in her mind.

She looked away from Harry startled. She had been too into their fight that she didn't even notice that her pack had phased.

"Yeah I bet you didn't," Quil snorted. "You were way too busy picturing sucking him-"

"Quil!" Seth screamed frantically.

She tried not to, but now that he mentioned it, she couldn't stop herself from picturing it.

"Ah! Stop it! Please!" Seth begged, almost sobbing.

Jacob rallied them on task. "Okay, okay, focus. Guys. Leah, get rid of Harry if you can. I'm about to open full communications with Sam's pack." They had learned a while ago that if Jacob and Sam concentrated enough, they could almost merge the pack. It felt more like an emergency merging, only lasting a little time. She didn't really care much about all the specifics, especially with the Alphas, but all she cared about was that Sam couldn't command her, so she was okay with it.

Leah looked back at Harry who was flying next to her, his hair flying around wildly. How to get rid of him? She looked left and right and saw the forest. It would slow her down some if she ran through the trees, but it would probably slow him down more. She darted into them, zig-zagging around trees and going right through bushes, powering through them. She looked behind her, happy that Harry wasn't there. She shook her head side to side, thinking about what a stubborn imprint he was.

"Finally! A challenge!" she heard from above her. She cursed. He was just above her, flying above all the bushes and plants that might catch him, but below most of the branches that would hit him.

His face was completely concentrated, his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth a little. His hands made little minute movements to the left and right, making his broom move just enough to narrowly miss most obstacles. He was definitely a sight to watch. His hair wild, his eyes bright and his muscles flexing. His legs were gripping the sides of the broom and crouching down to make him more aerodynamic.

"Damn Leah. That was almost poetic." Mac broke off her concentration, showing that Jacob had joined the packs. "If I was gay, I'd hit that after that description.

"Shut up," she said to everyone, since half of them were paying attention to what she was seeing.

"_Got it."_ Sam thought and she saw him dart after a vampire, a girl. The girl ran slowly, but she looked like a newborn so her strides were long and strong. Sam was catching up to her fast though.

Leah was the closest one to him, so she put on a burst of speed and caught up to him. Together they jumped on the vampire, grabbing an arm each and biting. Both of them only nicked her, but she stumbled and tumbled around the ground. Unlike most vampires who would either keep fighting and snarling, or run away trying to save their life, this one stayed down. She started sobbing tearlessly. Leah felt no pity.

"Please! Stop! I'm not trying to harm anyone," it brought her hands up over her head and begged childishly. "Don't hurt me_ please_." Leah and Sam both ignored it and went in for the kill.

Or tried to, at least.

A sphere of strong wind surrounded the vampire knocking both of the Sam and her away from the vampire. It wasn't strong enough to hurt them. In fact, the only reason it pushed them was because they weren't ready for it and were caught off guard.

They got up and went to try again, but Harry stopped them. He was hovering above the vampire, thin streams of magic coming out of his hand, feeding the wind.

"Really? This is what you guys do? Not even a chance for them?" he said, disappointed. Leah whined. What was she supposed to do? Even if she agreed with him, she still had to do what her pack said.

Sam growled at him angrily "_Move_." He barked. Harry probably understood the sentiment.

Harry gave him warning look and then looked back toward the vampire. "What's your name?" he asked softly.

"Courtney," it said timidly.

Almost against her will, because of Harry, she forced herself to look at her as a girl instead of a vampire. The girl was blond, had a wide heart shaped face that was more round than most of the vampires. She was fairly short, but a little taller than the pixie Cullen. She didn't look at all like a fighter, so Leah found herself relax just a little. Then she saw its red eyes staring up at Harry. Blood red.

Leah growled loudly. The vampire cringed.

A few wolves were now coming out of the tree line, most of the same thinking the same thing as Paul, but in a lot less extreme ways. "What the _fuck_ is he doing? Knock him off that fucking broom and then kill the leech!"

"So, you don't want to hurt any of us right?" Harry asked her softly. She shook her head. "So what were you doing here?"

Most of the wolves stopped growling. They figured out what Harry was doing. _Smart_.

The girl squirmed uncomfortably, not answering. Some of the wolves started growling again. Harry lowered his broom to the ground and dropped to his feet, stopping the wind that was useless now against half a dozen wolves.

What was he _doing_? Leah panicked a bit now, shuffling on her paws. Her imprint was so close to the vampire. She could kill him before Leah could even cry out.

"The more you tell us, the more we can help you," he said, still softly. Paul growled, not even close to agreeing to help any vampires. "Okay, _I'll_ help you." He smiled reassuringly at her, making Leah even angrier. "So why are you here?"

The vampire looked at him, indecision warring on her face still. Leah was about to just jump and kill her when she spoke in barely a whisper, "bait."

All of the wolves' shackles rose, now making a circle and looking towards the trees.

Harry didn't seem alarmed, he just nodded. "Thank you." He smiled and motion for her to get up. She did so hesitantly. "So they're pretty much ambushing us any second?" She nodded her answer, scared again. "Do you know how many?"

"No. I'm sorry," she cringed again.

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly, the girl relaxed. Leah hope they got to kill her now that they got everything out of her. The pack agreed, although most of them were now impressed with Harry. Leah would have gloated at his genius if there wasn't a vampire still standing a few feet away from her imprint.

"What are you going to do when they get here?" he asked her, now a bit more serious. "Are you going to fight with them?" The girl didn't respond. "Do you_ want _to fight with them?"

"No!" She said quickly. "You're so much nicer than them. I don't want to go back there, but they'll kill me."

"Don't worry, we'll protect you, if you promise not to fight against us. You don't have to fight against them if you don't want," he said. Now, every single wolf had a problem with that.

Leah moved around Harry, so that if anything happened, she had a clear shot at the vampire. Harry noticed and gave her a disappointed look.

"Really guys?" he asked them all. All the wolves growled back their affirmative. Leah whined a little, pleading them to be careful not to hurt Harry if they attacked the vampire. Everyone started stalking closer very slowly.

"Leah... Please?" he asked her. She looked away from the vampire toward him. He had the most convincing pleading expression. The problem was, even if she gave in, she couldn't stop seven other wolves now.

She looked back toward the vampire and saw it look towards Harry's exposed neck and lick her lips. That's when two things happened at once. As a group, more than a dozen vampires came out of the trees, sprinting towards them. The other thing was Leah reacting to the vampire girl looking at Harry hungrily. She sprang towards the vampire, fully intent on killing it.

She would have, if they were still there.

Harry had widened his eyes when he saw her leap and apparently reacted on instinct as well. He reached toward the vampire, almost giving Leah a heart attack, and then they both disappeared.

All around Leah there were wolves and vampires in battle, but all she could do is stare at the spot where Harry disappeared. Her heart throbbed painfully. He was gone, with a vampire who will probably kill him. She let out a loud mournful howl, startling half the vampires there. She could just vaguely notice Seth, taking the opportunity to bite a big guy's head off when it looked toward her.

"Leah! Please! He'll be fine!" Seth was screaming frantically in her mind, trying to get her to move. She tried, but her legs moved slowly, stiffly. She laid down, feeling defeated. "Leah. Since when did you get so fucking dramatic, Jesus – Leah look out!"

She saw a vampire grinning at her when she laid down. He probably thought she was injured, and perfect for him to take her out. She went to defend herself, but she didn't have to. When the vampire leaped the forty or so yards, thinking it would be easy pickings, he made a long trajectory. Long enough for a wizard flying to hit him with a quick burst of energy.

She looked up, and saw Harry flying above them. With back up. Some of the wolves cheered while others just stared at the odd spectacle.

It was Emmett and Jasper, both hanging on to the broom with one hand, with Harry holding onto the broom with one hand. The other was still pointing the wand where he shot off the spell.

Both of the Cullens let go at the same time, landing just a bit away from the fighting. Jasper landed down softly, not making a sound to even Leah's ears, crouching down and making a smaller target as if on instinct. His eyes darted all about, probably taking in the whole battlefield and making plans. Emmett on the other hand, didn't even bother bending his knees. He just landed with his feet stick-straight, making them sink into the ground a good three or four inches, dirt flying up. His face was a mile wide grin, which he opened to say "Come at me, bitches!"

The wolves had been losing the fight. They had taken no casualties; their formations were too good for that, but the vampires had half of them pinned down, outnumbered and just waiting for an opening. The wolves had taken down three of the

vampires thanks to Leah's earlier distraction, but two of the vampires had already pieced themselves back together and had rejoined the fight.

Now though, the two Cullens took five vampires for themselves, leaving the wolves with more even fights. Leah looked away from the two Cullens and looked at Harry, who was switching between shooting down red, normal looking fire to burn the pieces of vampire that were taken off, and shooting patches of the weird purple fire that couldn't hurt the wolves. He made sure to shoot those far away from the Cullens. He wasn't shooting it at the vampires exactly, but seemed more strategically around the more overwhelmed wolves, giving them cover to duck into when they needed it or just to knock vampires into.

The relief that she felt was almost painful in its intensity. He was okay. The stupid stunt he pulled didn't hurt him. The relief turned to anger. White hot anger. She glared at him, not even bothering fighting. She just glared him down, hoping that he could feel her anger from there. She would kill him, she would dismember him, piece by piece. He would probably be able to heal himself with his stupid magic anyways. Then she would do it again. And then she would kiss him, and then she would punch him in the face and start it all over again.

"Okay, cool it sis. He seems like he knows what he's doing, he was probably fine." Seth tried to explain as best as he could while looking for more kills. Jacob had stolen his. "What the hell is their leader doing?"

Leah looked away from Harry to see what he was showing her mentally. Their leader, an agile looking blond male was climbing up a tree and it looked like he was trying to hide in between the branches, but doing a very_ very _poor job of it. There was no way anyone would miss him.

"That's a dumb vampire, isn't it? Wonder how he became the leader," Seth asked, amused.

"We _assumed_ he was the leader, we don't know, do we?" she asked.

"Eh, doesn't matter. Want to do this?" he asked, snickering. He sent her a mental picture of a couple of dogs barking at a cat in a tree. He switched the picture with both of them and the vampire as the cat. She snickered as well.

She snickered, until they both figured out exactly what he was doing. He _was_ hiding, but not from the wolves with super vision, but from the wizard flying around on top of the trees.

The leader jumped off, shooting off towards Harry, who was flying by that area. Leah's breath caught in her chest. Thankfully, as a wizard, his magic must make him faster because a human couldn't have seen him coming, much less reacted. Harry shot a fireball off his wand, simultaneously pulling up on his broom at the same time. It looked like he didn't have enough time for a big fireball, because this one only took off a bit of his right shoulder, the one trying to grab him. The vampire didn't get to grab on to Harry, but it did get a swipe at his broom, breaking it in half.

The sound of splintering wood seemed unnaturally loud to Leah. For a second, she almost panicked that she had heard wrong and that she heard bones breaking as well, but a couple of wolves were quick to assure her they heard no bones breaking.

She wasn't paying attention to them though, because Harry was trying to go up, when his broom broke, meaning he was still going up higher. Which meant he was going to drop and hit the ground from even higher.

Leah took off. She was going to catch him. He wasn't going that fast, she had time to get there. So busy was she, trying to plan how to catch him safely, that she didn't see the leader vampire get up, his arm smoking, and grab on to her leg while she passed him. She was so determined though, that it only took one swipe to take off his uninjured arm, and one bit for his head. Unhindered, she quickly turned back to catch Harry, but she knew she probably wouldn't get there because of the distraction. She looked back to Harry... and nothing. She couldn't see him anywhere.

She looked around everywhere. Most of the fights were finished. There was only one vampire left and Sam had him pinned down, waiting for others to help him as to not take a chance. Harry wasn't anywhere though. Leah started to freak out a little, hoping against hope that he teleported. Maybe to a lake or something.

Then an owl landed on her shoulder.

An owl. She looked at it, mystified. As a rule, no animals came near them. Even bears would get frightened at the sigh of them. The owl, though, just stared back at her fearlessly. It was completely black with green eyes that looked frighteningly like Harry's. She barked at it questioningly. It hooted back at her. She growled at it. It started scratching its back, turning his head a full hundred and eighty degrees. It looked back at her and she could've sworn it would be grinning cheekily if it didn't have a beak.

"Leah. It's Harry. He transformed into an owl when he was dropping," Jacob said amusedly.

"What? How come I didn't see that?" she asked, astonished.

"I don't know, you're surprisingly in your own mind when you think of your imprint. You completely ignore us," Jacob said, making a picture of a neglected kid getting no love.

"Shut the fuck up, Jacob," she said automatically. She turned back to Harry, effectively ignoring everyone else again. She glared at it fiercely. Harry beat his wings. She had no idea what that meant. It better be him apologizing.

She wished she could yell at him, and she hit her head with her paw as a substitute face palm when she remembered the anklet. She shook herself, throwing Harry off the side. He hooted wildly and flailed to right himself, but landed on its back.

Leah phased back, fully clothed thanks to her anklet. She stared down at the owl now, who was looking at her very displeased, with his feathers ruffled. "Turn back _now_," She commanded.

Harry's eyes widened and he turned into human again quickly. "What happened?" he asked, a bit fearful.

"I will _murder_ you, that's what happened," she hissed.

"What? Why?" he asked, almost innocently. Like that would fool her.

"You _fucking_ almost gave me a heart attack like three times. _Three_." She was, putting three fingers an inch away from his face, making him take a step back. She took a step forward. "You protect a vampire against us, you teleport away with her-"

"Apparated," he mumbled. Then widened his eyes. "Sorry."

She breathed in deeply through her nose to calm herself. "_Teleported_ away with her." She looked to see if he would contradict her. He smartly didn't. "And she wanted to eat you! She was looking at your neck when you went with her, and then you put yourself in more danger by flying around when they can kill you, and you almost died when that vampire jumped at you from the tree. And you weren't supposed to follow me in the first place!" She finished, flailing her arms for effect.

"Done?" he asked amused. She clenched her hands. "Okay, let's see,' he started, ticking off fingers on his hand. "It's my job to investigate here, so I have to be here. The girl informed us about the ambush, which was more than beneficiary. I took her to the Cullens, who would have been able to save me, even if I wasn't able to protect myself, and I even came with backup which you probably would have lost without," he explained it all matter-of-factly.

"It doesn't matter!" she said, stomping her foot.

"I get that you want to protect me, but I don't like people hiding stuff from me or trying to stop me from doing stuff." His tone was colder now. The coldest he'd ever spoken to her.

She reeled back a little at his tone, but didn't stop glaring at him. Fighting with her imprint made her feel like shit. Apparently it did the same to him, because he scrunched up his face in something like a grimace.

"Look, Leah, you would feel the same way, if I went to fight and left you behind. I used to do that, and people got very mad at me. That's one of the things my girlfriend _still_ throws back at me." Talking about his girlfriend wasn't endearing him to her, but at least it was something negative. "As for the girl that I took to the Cullens... I get that you're really against vampires, but I'm not, and I'm not going to be," he said firmly. She was part impressed that he would stand up for what he believed, and half wanting to slap him for what he believed.

"I want..." she said pensively and trailed off. "I want to slap you," she finished.

Harry cracked a grin at that. She didn't. "I know. Well, I won't apologize, because we both know it'd be bollocks. But I don't want to fight." He hesitantly walked closer to her and reached out for her. She didn't return the gesture, but made no move to stop him. He took that as a compromise, because he nodded, and then hugged her while she kept her arms at her sides.

"We'll talk more later when we're more level headed, yeah?" Harry asked.

"Fine," she said frostily.

"Great," he grinned widely. Against her will, it made her smile. "I'm gonna take the Cullens back, Emmett looks like he's bothering Sam a bit."

She looked to the side, and saw he was right. He was indeed annoying Sam. He would keep nudging him and saying that a small wrestling match would only help them be able to hunt vampires better, while Sam would growl at him warningly. She shook her head. "Fine," she repeated.

Harry grinned at her one last time, and teleported – no, apparated. whatever – next to Emmett. Jasper was nowhere in sight so he must have gone back already. She saw Harry quickly grab Emmett's shoulder and disappear with a crack.

Leah sighed. She was a bit mad at herself for fighting him now. If she hadn't, she might have gone back to bed with him. Now she had to run home and lay in her own bed.

* * *

Harry appeared on the Cullens doorstep with Emmett in tow.

"You ruin all the fun," Emmett pouted at him.

"Without me you wouldn't have had any fun in the first place," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

Emmett instantly grinned again. "Yeah, you're right. That was awesome. I killed two, I think I beat Jasper."

They walked in to see Jasper holding the girl's shoulders. It looked like he was trying to comfort her, which he probably was with his powers, but it was probably more to hold her down if he needed to. She had a bag of blood in her hands, with the tip of it in her mouth. She was drinking deeply. The rest of the Cullens were around the room, doing their usual pastimes. Nessie was probably asleep.

"I got three, Emmett. You lost," Jasper said, not taking his eyes away from the girl.

Emmett walked towards Rosalie grumbling.

"Hey Courtney. How's it going?" Harry asked, waving at her.

She waved back happily. "This doesn't taste as good as humans. It'll be hard to get used to this," she pouted at Harry. She looked instantly at ease with him, as if they were long life friends.

Harry could never resist a pouting girl. "Well, I might have a couple of things that might make it easier."

All eyes turned to Harry at that. Courtney's were the only one not surprised. "I told them so," she said smiling widely, blood on her lips.

"What do you have to help?" Jasper asked eagerly. It was weird for Harry to see Jasper eager. His face usually looked very controlled.

"Err. I can make a potion to take the blood-lust off, but I don't want you guys using that too much. Only for emergencies," he said warningly.

"Is there side effects?" Carlisle asked worriedly.

"No, it's just that, you guys will live for a long long time," he said, they all looked at him confused. "Well, I won't. Which means I won't be able to make them for you forever."

"Ahh. Good point. And if we get too used to no blood-lust it'll be twice as bad, once we stop taking it, right?" Carlisle reasoned immediately.

"Exactly," Harry nodded. He looked at Courtney. "However, it'll be really good for Courtney to use to give her a break in when she needs one." She smiled thankfully at him. "And I have something else that you'll love, Courtney," he grinned at her. "Two seconds."

He apparated back to his apartment. He walked to the cabinet and found Malfoy's pack of blood pops. He didn't know how Malfoy could like them, but he was thankful now.

He apparated back, with the candy behind his back. "It's wizard candy!" He announced happily.

"We can't eat food." Rosalie said condescendingly. She didn't seem to hate him, it just seemed like she always talked like that.

He was about to reply when Courtney cut him off. "He knows that. He knows what he's doing," she said to Rosalie and then turned her wide, admiring eyes back at him. They made him a bit nervous. They looked like fan girl eyes, he could recognize those a mile away.

She wasn't acting like them though, even after saving her life, so he liked her a little already.

He smiled widely at her. "You can eat _this_ candy. I'll give you one guess as to what it tastes like." He didn't wait for them to guess. He handed the box off to Courtney.

"Blood pops?" she asked excitedly. "Is it real blood?"

"Not real blood, so it won't hurt your diet, but it tastes exactly the same."

Courtney didn't seem like she was listening, she had torn one out of its wrapper and instantly put it in her mouth. "Oh. Mmmmmmm," she said, giving such a deep moan that it made Harry blush a bit. "And I don't even feel like killing you now!" she said announced cheerfully. She had enunciated all that perfectly, even with stick sticking out of her mouth. Harry chalked it up to her being a vampire.

He thought Leah would probably make a dirty joke about her being experienced with things in her mouth. That or kill the vampire.

Courtney then bit off the stick and kept the candy in her mouth. She grinned widely.

She then got up and got to Harry's side with her full speed and her arms open, not used to trying to appear human. Harry cast a shield, just in case. She stopped in front of it and pouted at him, making hurt eyes. He groaned, hating when girls used that on him. Some of the Cullens looked alarmed, but Edward and Jasper reassured them it was fine. Harry figured they knew she wasn't a threat with their powers.

"Those eyes are absolutely lethal," he said, making her grin smugly. "And I just stopped you to remind you that I'm breakable, so be careful."

She made an 'o' with her mouth and nodded. He took it down and he was instantly in a marble hard hug. He squeezed her back awkwardly.

"I'll bring a box of these candies later, I stole these from my roommate," he said, smiling happily about stealing from Malfoy. All the vampires looked grateful. He turned back to her. "Are you happy here then? No problems?" he asked her. The Cullens didn't seem offended. He half expected Rosalie to be offended at least, but she looked the happiest that he had asked that.

"Nope! They're perfect to me," she smiled again. She was probably the happiest vampire he had ever seen. "I only wish that you were here all the time as well," she pouted. He groaned.

"Sorry, but I can't help with that one. I'll come visit, but my best friend is the wolf girl that tried to kill you," he smiled apologetically at her.

"Ah. She'd be jealous too," she nodded.

"Err, she's not my girlfriend, but she'd probably be worried."

"So you're single?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes outrageously.

Rosalie piped in. "He's not. Have they explained to you the way vampires bond?"

"Yes!" Courtney responded enthusiastically. "That was the most interesting part about being a vampire to me. I asked everything about it."

"Well, he has one with the girl-mutt," she said, sneering. "But he's in denial about it because he has a little witch girlfriend, and is trying to be noble, and the wolf-mutt won't knock him upside the head and just kiss him," she summed it up nicely, Harry grudgingly thought.

"Oh. That's a shame," Courtney said sadly. Then she smiled brightly again. Harry thought that must be her extra vampire power, being happy. "I guess I could forgive the wolf girl for trying to kill me," she said with a mischievous glint to her eyes. "I'll just get a bit of revenge first. If it's what I wanted to do anyways. That's just good for me."

Harry was confused. "Okay? You're not going to hurt-" He was cut off. With her lips on his. She grabbed his head and brought her lips to his. Her kiss was sweet and cold and better than Ginny's ever were, but he didn't feel anything for her.

"That was just a thanks. And hopefully it'll make the wolf jealous enough to kiss you," she grinned widely again. Her happiness was contagious.

"I should be mad at you. I do have a girlfriend," he said, but his smile ruined it.

"Nah. You love me already. I can tell," she said with her permanent grin.

"You're too happy to hate I think. Maybe that's your extra vampire power" He said, shaking his head.

"No, you just make people happy," she said, fluttering her eyelashes again.

He rolled his eyes. "I was wrong. Your power is being a cheeky bugger." She laughed. "Just don't provoke either girl if you see them."

"Dude!" Emmett boomed. "You should get your girlfriend, your wolf girlfriend and Courtney in a room. It would be hot as hell to see them fight." Rosalie slapped him upside the head without looking away from the TV. "What? It would. Even you'd be turned on, Rose."

"It's true," both Courtney and Alice said at the same time. They smiled at each other. Great, Harry thought, two hyper happy vampires.

"Whatever," he said. "I'm going back home. I actually need sleep."

"Want me to lay with you?" Courtney asked instantly.

"Down, girl," he said, smiling. She seemed quite proud of herself even with the scolding.

"I'm kidding," she said. She then turned serious for probably the first time. "Thank you, Harry. Anything you need from me, I'll do anything you want, please don't hesitate to ask." She quickly turned cheeky again and licked her lips "Anything at all." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

He ignored her joke, "Alright, but only if you do the same for me." She grinned cheekily again so he cut her off before she could start. "Except for that." She laughed. "Okay, I really am tired now."

He gave her a hug before he left, to which she seemed surprised, but extremely pleased. Then he apparated straight to his bedroom.

He landed there and looked at his empty bed, which brought his mood down. He wished Leah was still there. He would have to make it up to her tomorrow somehow, without making it seem like he was apologizing. He was much too stubborn for that.

He laid down, now thinking about what Rosalie said. Courtney had kissed him, and he could detachedly see that it was good, but even then he didn't feel anything for it. He imagined it would be even worse to kiss Ginny now.

He tried to not to think about it, but he closed his eyes and imagined Leah's warm lips on his. He felt a shock of pleasure go through him just thinking about it. He opened his eyes breathing heavily, it was becoming harder and harder to fight it.

* * *

Draco felt important.

It really wasn't anything new, but this time he felt a strange sense of accomplishment to go along with the feeling. The feeling that he was just better as always, but he _earned_ it. This time it was through hard work, not just because he was born above all others. He was chosen for this.

He was walking through the ministry, on his way to see the head of the DMLE to tell her everything about their mission. It was his responsibility to represent his whole team. So far, this was the most prestigious mission he had ever had. He would never forget how he got it.

Potter had come home looking tired. Draco had noticed him and his mistress leave his room during the night, so apparently they were having a fight or something. Since Potter looked so tired and down, he thought it was the perfect time to put news on him.

"Potter, they sent us a letter, they want one of us to go and report at headquarters," Draco had dutifully informed Potter.

Completely uncouth, Potter just grunted and said, "I'm tired. You do it."

Thankfully, Draco could see through the rough edges that was half-blood speak and translated in his mind. What Potter was _really_ trying to say was...

"_Draco, your linguistics skills are far superior to mine, so you should handle this important mission that I would surely ruin without your expertise."_

Draco smirked. Ever since he became more open to muggleborns and other inferiors, he had spent countless hours learning their language. Apparently, Granger had been trying to mate with him all through school. That's why she and Weasley always fought, and are now married.

He wished he had known of this back in school. He wouldn't have touched her, of course, but she would've been good at doing his homework.

There wasn't any more time to reminisce about Hogwarts because he reached Amelia's office. He knocked importantly. The trick was to apply the right amount of force. Too much and it was rude, too little and it sounded like a spineless coward knocking. Draco knew how to knock with a perfect force, which he did, _three_ times. The number was also important. More than three and it sounded impatient. As if the person knocking was in a hurry, which makes one look very incompetent. However, fewer than three was just as bad. One knock and it sounded more like someone ran into the door, not knocked. Two knocks and it was too tentative, as if you were asking if someone was in there, but it wasn't overly important. That was wrong, Draco's time was very important. Therefore the right amount of-.

"Trainee Malfoy! I said come in four times! Is there any reason you are standing in front of my door like an _invalid_?!" Amelia shouted in his face, breaking his train of thought.

Draco flushed and murmured an apology. "Sorry," he raised his voice, regaining his confidence, "I'm here to report from my team in America."

Amelia sighed at him. "Fine, come in."

Once they were in and comfortable, Draco jumped right into it. "Apparently the Volturi had gone there because the Cullen coven has a pretty rare half-breed with them," Draco said, slightly disgusted at the half-vampire. "One of them had sex with a human and got her pregnant. Now they have a half vampire kid or something. A little girl. She's sort of strange to watch," Draco relayed everything Potter said. Although he did make up the last part, but he thought it'd sound better that way.

Amelia nodded, "I see. Anything else I should know?"

Draco thought hard. There _was _something Potter wanted know... it didn't sound very important. Something about help because of all the vampires, but Draco didn't see any after that first fight they had.

"Potter said something about getting help because of all the vampires that keep attacking the Cullens, but I haven't seen any, truthfully," Draco shrugged.

"Alright. I'll relay the message to the Wizengamot after I speak to Harry. If he has no proof, then I'm not even going to bother," Amelia shook her head, "also, if you haven't seen anything this whole time?" she asked, to which Draco shook his head no, "then I'm going to be pulling you out. Frankly, we need more trainees for the World Cup coming up." Draco puffed out his chest importantly. "It's basically just for show, it needs to look like more security than it actually is," Amelia explained. Draco ignored that part.

Draco nodded solemnly. "I'll put my life on the line if need be."

Amelia sighed and look up at the ceiling. Draco thought she was probably thanking Merlin for his dedication.

"Just go report back to Potter and be back at the office on Monday," Amelia just said, and waved her wand to open the door, silently informing him that his duty was done.

Draco smiled winningly. He had nailed it. Not only had he reported everything in detail, but Amelia was so impressed that she declared their mission in America a success. They could come home after a job well done. He rushed home to tell Potter the good news, patting himself on the back.

* * *

Harry drove to the reservation. He didn't feel like apparating today. He had to talk to one of the imprintees, and he didn't know which one would be best. Rachel would have been nice because of her being Jacob's sister, but Paul would probably try to attack him. Kim seemed to shy to be of any help. Emily would probably be best. She knew the most about it and was kind of the mother and authority to all the shape-shifters. It would be the least weird going to her for advice.

He would have to deal with Sam though. Maybe if he had some kind of actual reason other than just advice, it wouldn't be as bad.

Harry blinked. He had a great idea. He actually smacked himself hard on the face for not doing this earlier. Leah would either kiss him or punch him for not doing it before now. Hopefully the first one.

Happy that he had a game plan for once, even if he did come up with it on the way like usual, he pulled into the road going to Sam's and Emily's house. Most of the wolves were there in front of the house, without shirts on. The only one wearing a shirt was Leah.

He walked up to them after getting out the car. "I hope you're here to apologize." Leah sniffed, but her face looked much to hopeful for her to be serious. Harry decided to play with her.

"Or?" he asked smirking at her challengingly.

He saw the fire in her eyes from his challenge. "Or I'll kick you in the balls so hard your grandchildren will have trouble getting it up."

"You know, magic could heal that in a couple of minutes," he said, but crossed his legs nonetheless.

"Fine." She crossed her arms and looked away from him, though he saw her glance a few times. "I"ll give you the silent treatment."

"Really?" She didn't even look at him. "Well, that's okay. I was only here to visit Emily, not you." He did see her try to hide a bit of anger there. Sam was looking at him with a raised eyebrow too, but didn't say anything. "Plus... I did come about a gift... but if you don't want it, I guess I'll just give it to Emily..."

Now she looked at him with anger. She turned to him and held her hand out stormily, but with a hint of excitement. "No, no, only people who talk get stuff," he said sadly.

"Fine! Fine! Whatever, you blackmailing piece of shit, give it here!" She almost shouted, to the laughs of the few guys that were amusedly watching.

"Hm. That was kind of rude I don't-"

"I'm rude, get over it," she said, pointing to her hand.

"Don't worry, I like it." Her lip twitched. "But I actually have to make it still, and I really do want to talk to Emily for a bit while I do it, if that's alright?"

"Why do you want to talk to Emily?" Sam piped in suspiciously.

"Actually," Harry said, grinning widely. "I have to ask her how to deal with temperamental werewolves," and mock-discreetly pointed at Leah. "She deals with all of you, so I thought she'd know."

"Fine. Just be respectful," Sam said warningly. Harry just rolled his eyes.

"No worries," Harry said. "I just wanted to talk to one of the imprintees, didn't matter which-"

"Oh!" Jared said loudly and pointed at Harry. "It's like a chick session. He's going to gossip with all the other imprint girls!"

There were a lot of snickers and even Leah laughed. She smiled at him victoriously. Someone was still angry at him...

"Sure, sure," Harry said, mimicking Jacob. "They do pretty much have you all whipped, so I'm okay with wearing the trousers," he said snickering to himself.

Paul's famous anger flared up easily at that. "You can wear the pants, but with your little ass dick, it don't mean shit," he said and then laughed loudly. Nobody quite laughed as much as him, but there were a couple of snickers.

Harry just smiled as if he had a secret. He looked at Leah, who was glaring daggers at Paul. If he wasn't a wizard, he'd be scared of what she thought about that.

"Ah. But you forget that while being shape-shifters might have made you tiny bit bigger," He started and then held up two fingers on his left hand, while he brought out his wand, pointing it at his upheld fingers. "I am a wizard," he said simply.

Everyone looked at him confused, and that's when he cast the spell. With a quick silent E_ngorgio_ his fingers were now twice the size. Everyone gawked and a few looked envious.

Oddly, Leah's face was red and she was breathing heavily.

"Alright, I'm off. Call me if you need anything, don't try to peek at the gift, I'll be putting silencing charms." With that, he walked off.

When he was almost to the door, he thought he heard Seth exclaim "Leah! Gross! I can smell that from here, close your legs." But he wasn't sure if he heard right.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw Emily sitting down at the table, reading a book. She looked up and then smiled warmly when she saw Harry. "Hey Harry. What's up? Did they need something?"

"No, actually, I wanted to talk to you." She looked surprised, but pleased. "I sort of need advice," he said, a bit embarrassed. "Imprint advice."

"Well, you have come to the right place. Sit down, tell me what the problem is," she said, patting the seat next to her.

Harry thought about why he had come here, and how much he should just say. He decided to just be honest.

"Well, this might sound horrible of me, but did the imprinting ever _force_ you to like Sam?" he asked.

She blinked. "Um. I'm not sure. What brought this on?"

Sighing, and running a hand through his hair, he just let it all out. "It's just that, how do you _not _fall for someone who looks at you with that much admiration all the time and she's just perfect all the time and my girlfriend was such a bitch when she came over and how can you be sure it's not the imprinting that is affecting it?" He said this all really fast, taking a huge breath afterward.

Emily smiled at him amused. "So you think you like Leah and are losing feelings for your girlfriend?" she asked. "Is that pretty much it? And you're worried the imprint is the one doing it all?"

Harry nodded glumly. "Plus it feels wrong to go from one to another like this."

"Well, what you have to know first, is that everyone here is going to be biased, me most of all. We all want to see you with Leah. Not only that, but we _expect_ you to end up with her," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think an imprintee has ever been able to deny the connection. Not only is the love of your soulmate almost impossible to reject, but" She leaned forward emphatically said "You're soulmates. You complete each other, whether you know it now or you will later."

"Yes, but wasn't it that a friendship would solve all that?" Harry asked frustratedly.

"It does solve all of that, but no one else wants a relationship with someone that has a soulmate as a best friend. They'll never be able to compete."

Harry nodded. They stayed in silence for a few minutes. Harry took the opportunity to look at her scars and study them.

"Hey, do you mind if I work in here for a bit? I'd be brewing a potion," Harry asked her.

"A potion?" she asked, intrigued. "I'd love to see that, actually."

Harry grinned. "Great." He brought out the potions kit from his pocket and set it on the table, enlarging it. That made Emily yelp and then laugh a bit at herself.

"I need one more thing, which is another reason I'm here. I need a bit of the chemical on the shape-shifter's claws." He informed Emily. "I'm going to ask Leah if she'll give me some. I'll be right back."

Walking out the door, he walked over to the wolves quickly. "Hey Leah, do you think you can phase real quick?"

* * *

Emily watched as Harry came back in, holding a vial with some dirty looking liquid in it. He was whistling happily. There was really nothing that made someone happier than seeing the wolf that imprinted on them, Emily knew. Even though it was obvious, she could see it on Harry's face that he had just seen Leah.

"So what do you need that chemical for?" Emily asked curiously, peering over his shoulder at all the ingredients that he was laying out on a table that he had just created with his magic.

"I'm working on something new, like the anklet I made for Leah," he said, taking out ingredients from the kit. He looked at her and asked, "Did you see it?"

She smiled brightly. "Yes. It was amazing. You should have seen Leah. She didn't shut up about it for three days." Emily shook her head. Harry looked surprised, but pleased at that tidbit. "She still fiddles with it on her hand every time she's not doing anything. You just can't believe how happy it made her," Emily said softly. "She completely fell in love with you after that."

"Wasn't she already?" Harry asked surprised. Then he seemed to realize how presumptuous that sounded. "I mean cause of the imprint."

"It's a little more complicated than that. The imprint makes you the most important thing ever to her. It makes her love you unconditionally. If you were to go around killing people, she'd love you because of the imprint, but it would only make her work as hard as she could to help you change. She wouldn't help you kill, and she wouldn't like it that you did. She most definitely wouldn't reward you with any kind of romantic attention," Emily explained patiently. "I guess what I'm saying is that she'll always love you, but not necessarily love who you are."

"It's like family," he summed it up.

"Exactly." Emily said. "Like family. That's perfect."

Emily saw him start to cut at some slimy looking bug. It was gross. "Why did _that _make her fall in love with me?" Harry asked.

"Honestly Harry," she said shaking her head. "The worst part is that it makes you all the more attractive to her that you don't know how good you are."

He looked at her confused, while adding some type of powder to the cauldron.

"Okay, I'll just explain your gift to her, because it shows pretty much how you treat her every day." She brought out her hand and started counting with her fingers. "One, the gift was unexpected. There was no special occasion and she didn't see it coming, girls _love_ when guys do unexpected romantic things." She cut him off before he could speak "yes, Harry, it _was_ romantic." She brought another finger up. "It was completely selfless. You weren't in trouble so you weren't doing it to get out of any. You weren't asking for anything from it. You're not going out so it wasn't even for sex!" She had to take a big breath after the last one and then chuckle at Harry's red face.

"All gifts are supposed to be for nothing back," Harry said.

"Exactly. Third." Hitting her third finger to her other hand. "It was useful. Extremely so." Emily looked at Harry with wonder now, thinking about how lucky her cousin was. "It was something she can't even get anywhere. Not only that, but it shows you were listening to her problems, cause you solved one of her biggest ones. Fourth."

"How many are there?" Harry asked. He was very red in the face now, she could see, even though he hid it by looking at the liquid in the cauldron very intently. Way too intently for simply stirring. It was terribly cute how bad he was at taking compliments.

She noticed how perfect they were together then. He was terribly selfless, he seemed like he hated anyone doing anything for him. It was endearing, but everyone needed someone to show them love, they can't just give all the time. Leah, on the other hand, was actually fairly selfish most of the time. Except for the very few people that she lets in. For those people she'd do almost anything and especially in the most needed times. With her imprinting, she'd force herself on him and be the one that would give him all the love that he needs. The fact that Leah barely ever gave anyone that loyalty made what happened with Sam and Emily all the worse. She thanked god for the man in front of her had healed her cousin.

Emily figured she could help Leah with Harry. "Fourth," she repeated, ignoring his question. "It was homemade. I'm sure you understand this one." He nodded reluctantly. "Something made by hand is ten times as special."

"Fifth. This is the last one." She assured him. She saw him sigh in relief and she smiled. "It was from her imprint." He made a face, as if that one was cheating. "She imprinted on you, which means that she'll always love you, no matter what." He nodded confused, not really getting it. "That means that you're secure, no reason to even work at it. To most people that would make them complacent. She'll love you no matter if you do anything for her or not." Emily then sat back to hear what he had to say about the last one. She was sure he wouldn't disappoint.

"Bollocks," he immediately said. He walked away from the potion then, which he seemed to be done with. "The very fact that you're secure in it, makes you love them all the more and want to do more for them." His face was passionate, and the smoke coming from the cauldron behind him added to the effect.

"That's exactly why she's in love with you," Emily said softly. "Because that's how you think."

Harry deflated and sat down. "What do I do?" he asked a little desperately.

Emily thought for a bit. "How corny would it sound, if I said just go with your heart?"

Harry cracked a smile at that. "Fittingly so."

"Then go with your heart," she said with a surprisingly straight face.

Harry nodded. "Well. I should go break up with my girlfriend then."

Emily used all her will power not to cheer. Then she gave it up as a bad job. She whooped loudly and grabbed on to Harry's hands, making him dance in a circle with her. Harry laughed and Emily hugged him tightly.

"Oh I can't wait. She needs this. She's had such a tough road," Emily said, now sad again, thinking about what Leah had to go through because of her.

"She told me all about that." Harry nodded. Emily felt ashamed in front of him now. "The first time I heard it I was mad at you and Sam without even meeting you," Harry said honestly. Emily agreed. "Now, I honestly admire how good you were to your cousin," he said. Emily's head sprung up, confused. She denied it, but he explained it to her.

"You went weeks telling Sam no, before it ended up badly and then you had to comfort him because of guilty he felt." Harry shook his head. "If someone told me not to be friends with Leah I would have told them to go kill themselves, no matter who they were. That's how much the imprint affects you, and you fought through that. That's incredibly impressive." Harry looked at her with admiration. "_You_ are stronger than all the wolves out there," he said putting a hand on her shoulder.

Emily almost broke down in tears. That was incredibly inspiring. She almost, _almost_ let go of her guilt then. "Besides," She heard Harry say, from where he was looking at the potion. He then turned around to look at her again. "Are you going to blame me when I break up with my girlfriend for Leah?" he asked her.

She instantly shook her head and was about to vehemently deny that when he spoke first.

"Exactly. And I'm dating a girl that I've been with for over half a decade, especially when I promised her I would stay friends with Leah. You dated a single guy that wasn't going to go back to your cousin even if you denied him. If you blame yourself, you should blame me times ten," he said it all matter-of-factly.

This time she did cry. And she cried hard. She grabbed on to his shirt with her claws and didn't let go, soaking his shirt with her tears. Her scarred eye was burning fiercely, which made her cry all the more. She couldn't even stop crying when she saw Harry's amusingly panicked face. To his credit, he did hug her and stroke her back. That made her cry harder. She was so happy for Leah. She was almost jealous for a second for having Harry, but she loved Sam with all her heart.

She finally managed to pry away. "Thank you," she said, trying not to break down again.

"No problem." Then he grinned weakly, squirming in discomfort a bit. "Us imprints have to stick together right?"

She laughed hard at that. She could imagine Harry cooking with all the girls for the wolves when they came back from patrols. "Yes. Do you want to come gossip with us about our wolves as well? Or help us cook for all of them?" she grinned.

"I do cook for Leah you know!" They both laughed at that.

"You should come visit me more often, Harry," Emily said happily. "I want you to visit me with Leah next time you come over, and I want to hear romance!" She said, shaking her finger. "I demand entertainment!"

Harry laughed. "Will do. Thank you for helping me there. I'd have taken weeks to figure it out by myself."

"No problem. We're even now," Emily said happily. Talking to Harry gave her a bit more confidence. She could see herself letting go of the guilt soon.

"No, we're not," he said. Surprising her. She raised her eyebrows and he answered "We're not yet, but hopefully we're about to be," he said cryptically.

"You know, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Harry just smiled. "Do you trust me?" he asked.

"Yes." She answered immediately.

"Okay, I'm going to put you to sleep for a few minutes then. You won't feel it and you'll wake up painlessly," he said, getting his wand. She looked at him warily, a bit scared despite herself. "Unless you don't want to. I won't hurt you or anything, it's mostly just because I don't want to get hopes up, and if you see what I'm doing, it'll definitely get hopes up," he said cryptically.

Finally she steeled herself and just nodded her acceptance and sat down so that she wouldn't fall on the floor. "That's a good idea," he chuckled. "Okay, you'll wake up in a second." Then he waved his wand and she saw black.

Emily woke up almost instantly. It felt like she had not even fully fallen asleep. It couldn't have been more than a minute. She looked up to see Harry's widely grinning face. "How long have I been out?"

"Oh, just under an hour," he said casually.

"Almost an hour?" She shouted. He grinned wider.

"Yep," he said, ending it with a pop.

"So? What happened?" she asked only a little warily. He seemed happy, but that grin was a bit eerie right now.

"It worked. It completely worked," he said, and then got serious. "So tell me, do you feel any pain?"

"No? Why should I feel pain?" she asked, definitely alarmed now.

"No reason. The fact that you feel no pain means it worked for good now," he said happily.

She had a lot of questions, she decided on one. "_Where_ would I feel pain?"

He answered the question with a question. "Do you feel any different at all?" he asked.

"Um no. I don't feel anything weird. Completely normal," she said, feeling her sides and her boobs for some reason.

"Um, no I didn't touch your body," he said, looking away and reddening a tiny bit.

"Then what did you do?" She said, scrunching her eyebrows. That's when she felt something weird. Her scarred eyebrow felt weird, like if there was hair on it.

She reached a hand up to massage them to make them feel better, when she paused mid raise. There was no need, it didn't hurt in the first place. She froze, then very, very slowly looked up at Harry. He was only smiling softly now, reassuringly, nodding just a tiny bit. There was no way he did what she thought.

Her hand started shaking badly. There was _no way_ he did what she thought. She would touch her face, and the scar would be there, and she would feel the fool for hoping. Her hand started shaking worse. Harry gently grabbed her hand and pushed it toward her face. She closed her eye before the hand touched her, and she felt it.

She felt hair. There was hair on her eyebrow. She moved her hand a bit. She felt an eyelid, an unmarred eyelid. A perfect, healthy eyelid that told her there was a finger on it. She felt around for more and she felt her fingers on her cheek. Her fingers felt no scars.

"Mirror," she barely managed out. She felt she was about to faint. Harry then formed a mirror in his hand from nothing. She didn't even pay attention to the magic, she was still feeling choked up. He put it in front of her face and she saw it.

It was her face. Her face was perfect, not even a trace of the scar. It didn't hurt or anything. Tears were now pouring out of both eyes, but she couldn't even manage any sobs. They were just leaking out tears.

"I managed to get the chemical in the wolf paws out by carefully dowsing it with the mixture I made so that it was stabilized," he babbled, obviously scared she would start crying harder. "That made it so that the magic could be siphoned out. The magic in the chemical was what wouldn't let it heal, and it couldn't be extracted without ripping half your face off and killing you. The mixture allowed me to be able to just summon it out." He was rubbing the back of her hand now, trying to get her to stop crying, probably. "The rest was just a simple healing charm. You should be good to go now. It's permanent."

When she heard permanent she finally broke down. She clutched on to his shirt so hard it ripped a bit. She just grabbed a less damaged part. This boy was making her cry too much in one day. Obviously he thought so too because his next words were "Want to show Sam and Leah?" he asked very hopefully, so that he could hand her off to Sam. She didn't blame him. Even a girl would have run away by now.

"Wait! Let me clean my face first, I want to show him whole." She ran to the sink and threw water on her face, rubbing her face vigorously, reveling in being able to rub both sides as hard as she wanted. She laughed happily, still crying a little.

She dried off and looked at him who was edging to the door warily. She laughed and went over to him grinning. "Thank you," she said, hugging him hard. "I won't be able to say it enough for the rest of my life."

"Err... Please don't?" he said, sounding a bit panicked. "I only thought of it on the way here, I should have done this weeks ago." He tried bullshitting next. "Besides, I only did this to try to get with your cousin, you know, to look like the good guy."

She laughed and shook her head. He was impossible. "Whatever, I'll try and make it up to you."

His eyes lit up. "Help me plan a date with her later?"

"Harry, it's practically impossible for you to mess that up. She imprinted on you, not the other way around," she said.

"I've done the impossible dozens of times now. Don't count anything out when it comes to me," he said seriously.

She raised her eyebrows at that, and then she delighted in how both eyebrows were raising. She smiled again, and felt herself about to tear up. Harry noticed as well.

"Here," he said, shoving a mirror in her hands. "I'll be right back, I'll go get them."

She laughed as he left. "Okay, I get the point. I won't cry."

* * *

Harry walked up to the group of wolves who were by a stack of pizzas. He stood next to Leah and bounced on his heels a bit. "'Sup guys?"

He got a round of 'nothing'. He put his hands behind his back and bounced a bit more. "So... I sort of have another gift.." He told Leah.

"Gimme!" Leah immediately said, grinning widely.

"Can we get one too? I want an anklet," Seth whined.

"Sorry" Harry said, actually feeling bad about not having a tangible gift. "It's not that kind of gift." He smiled apologetically at Leah.

"Oh? What kind of gift is it?" she asked. Thankfully, she didn't seem too disappointed. Maybe she was just hiding it.

"Hmm," he thought out loud. "How about you go in to Emily's kitchen. You'll find it immediately," he said.

She looked at him oddly, but did what he said nonetheless. There was an awkward few minutes where there wasn't much talking. Harry mostly just stood there waiting for Leah.

Leah came out then, tears streaming down her face. She looked around and her eyes locked on to Harry. He felt like a worm sitting out in front of a hawk. She strode over to him before breaking into a run. Right before reaching him, she jumped up and wrapped both her arms and legs around him making him stumble and unable to breathe. He would have fallen down, if Jacob's hand hadn't stopped him from doing so.

Leah put her head on his shoulder softly, which seemed odd compared to how tightly she had her limbs around him. He decided to get away just in case Sam gave him the same treatment. It wouldn't be nearly as nice from him.

"Sam, you should go look next, I'm gonna go home," he said, then spoke softly to Leah. "Leah, do you want to come with me?" She nodded against him.

The walk to the car was awkward, with her not letting go, but it was impossible trying to get in with her there. He only made it a few steps, really. He didn't bother trying to get her off, not like he wanted her to, anyways. He apparated back home, to his bedroom, in case Malfoy was about the house.

She hadn't let go yet, so he sat on his bed and hugged her back.

"I love you. So much." He heard Leah mumble.

He couldn't say it back yet, but he knew he would soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Harry was angry. That was nothing new though, Harry had been bitter for the last fifteen years of his life.

Today though, his anger would reach an all time high. Today _he_ would come to Hogwarts.

Severus Snape. The boy-who-lived.

Just thinking of the name made bile want to come up his throat. True, he had never met him, but he was sure he'd be just like his father. Arrogant. Obsessed about Quidditch and Pranks.

Harry was sitting at the staff table, Professor Flitwick at his side, raving on about Snape. All of the students except the first years were sitting down, waiting for the sorting. Harry saw the students come in, his eyes automatically searching for the boy.

He wasn't hard to notice.

Strutting towards the front, arrogance displaying proudly, he led the bunch of first year dunderheads. He looked just like his father. His hair was greasy, something that never failed to get Harry angry when all the girls would fawn over it. His nose was large and hooked. His father would always boast about how it made him more aerodynamic in the air, which worked towards making him the captain of the team.

Harry's lip reflexively curled into a sneer.

His eyes though, were the only thing that was different from his father. They were his mother's eyes. Just like his mother, he had the darkest eyes that Harry had ever seen. _Leah's Eyes_. So black that he could get lost in them. He shook his head and scolded himself. The boy looked just like his father, he would be nothing like _her_.

The boy had his entourage around him, all mindlessly boot-licking over the empty head of his nemesis' son.

Harry didn't even bother watching the sorting, he just glared at Snape the whole time.

Finally it was the boy's turn to get sorted. He pranced and flounced all the way to the stool with an air that could only come from the Snapes. Harry growled lowly in his chest.

The sorting took a long time, the hat was probably trying to find the few thoughts in that cavern that made up the boy's mind. Harry wished it good luck sorting through all the self obsessed thoughts the boy probably had.

Finally, the hat yelled "Gryffindor!"

Of course, where else would he go other than with the rest of the dunderheads.

"We got Snape!" The redheaded twins yelled. Harry bit back the impulse to take off points. They didn't have any yet.

He watched as the boy took off the hat, throwing it carelessly over to Minerva, then practically gloating all the way to his seat. Harry heard the comments of some of the girls in Hufflepuff, which was closest to his seat.

"Did you see him? Oh, I wish I could run my hands through that beautiful hair," said a blond third year.

"I'm going to stop washing my hair to be like him!" came from a newly sorted first year, Susan, if he recalled right.

"Did you see that nose? It's gorgeous. When he gets older, he's going to be putting it to good use," an older girl said. Harry almost gawked. He wasn't sure if she meant something more innocent than he thought, but he couldn't think of anything else.

"Mm," the girl next to the pervert said. "I bet you can squeeze that hair and it would be the most perfect lubrication."

Harry started throwing up.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

He looked up to see Leah watching him worriedly. Everyone else was staring at him, but they were much more amused than worried. He looked around. He had fallen asleep at Emily's table after he had breakfast there with Leah. Emily and Rachel were looking at him, snickering.

It didn't matter to him though, he was still dwelling on the dream.

"Harry?" Leah asked him anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm alright," was his absentminded reply.

That dream though... what did it mean? Sure it was disgusting and everything, but the thing that really struck Harry was the bitterness that he felt. He had never felt that bitter in his life before, was that what his potions professor had to deal with every time he saw Harry? For the first time he felt bad for all of his cheeky replies, Harry thought it was probably like driving it into Snape that hew as _James'_ son.

Harry looked up and saw Emily and Rachel, who were still snickering quietly. Then he turned and looked at Leah. Right in the eyes. Those eyes were so dark, he could get lost in them. Since he had met her, she'd sometimes reminded him of Snape a little with those eyes.

However, the emotions that those eyes gave him, couldn't be more opposite. Both eyes were extremely expressive, but where Snape's glinted with malice, Leah's shone with concern and adoration. She was always either concerned about him, or was completely adoring. Even when she acted like a little brat, he could tell that she would drop the whole act and do practically anything he needed, if he so much as commented on something.

He couldn't seem to look away from her eyes. He could feel his heartbeat and breath speed up, and could see Leah's do the same. The same eyes that never showed him anything but love, started to glower in lust for the first time. Peripherally, he saw her lick her lips, but even then, he couldn't bring his stare away from her eyes to look at her lips.

Emily clearing her throat brought them out of their heated gaze. Harry hastily looked away, for some reason feeling that what they just did was cheating more than if he had shagged her right on the table.

He glanced at Leah to see her glaring at Emily with a pretty good imitation of the malice that Snape used to have for him. Emily seemed taken aback a little, so Harry cleared his throat, gaining all their attention.

"I'm gonna go, I need to do something pretty important," he said and looked straight at Emily. She raised her eyebrows in question and he gave her a little smile in confirmation. She smiled widely at him.

Leah was looking between them suspiciously, noting the obvious by-play, so he tried to distract her. "I'll be right back," he said, looking only at her, and kissed her on the forehead. He made sure to lightly scratch at her scalp with his hand, only to distract her. Not because her hair was so silky that he wanted to rub his face in it, only to distract her. Leah smiled at him happily, properly distracted.

He apparated out to his house so that he could go break up with Ginny immediately. He needed to be with Leah sooner, lest he end up like Snape.

* * *

"Potter," Draco nodded his respect when Potter walked inside. Of course, the respect was only for the position of head auror, not for Potter himself. Well, maybe half of it is for him and half the position.

Draco snickered to himself over his amazing joke. _Half_. Half, because he's a half blood. Draco snickered again.

"Malfoy?" Potter asked him with an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing," Draco told him. Potter probably wouldn't get it anyways. "Where are you going," he asked, when Potter went to the fireplace. He was just making sure that Potter wouldn't go and bollocks up all the work he had done buttering up Amelia.

"To the Weasleys," Potter said, looking nervous.

"Nervous that your girlfriend is going to break up with you?" Draco smirked. "Shouldn't have been cheating with that muggle girl," he shrugged. He watched Potter for any expressions when he mentioned the girl was a muggle. Maybe Draco could figure out a way to make Potter admit it himself that she was a witch, so that Draco could blackmail him properly.

"I'm not cheating on her, and I'm going to go break up with her now," Potter said, sighing.

"Really?" Draco asked cheerfully. Well, that was certainly good news. "Finally! I always told you the Weasleys were bad news. Even said it first year," Draco pointed out the obvious. "If you had just been friends with me since first year, we could have taken down the Dark Lord by fifth year, at the latest." Draco was sure of that.

Potter snorted, obviously laughing at how much energy he wasted without Draco's guidance. "Of course," he agreed and turned around to leave again.

"Wait, Potter," Draco stopped him. "Want to hear how well I did with Amelia?" Draco asked, figuring Potter couldn't wait. Of course he forgot how strange Potter had always been.

"When I get back. I'm kind of a bit too worried to think about it properly," Potter told him, sighing.

"Do you have a game plan?" Draco asked him curiously.

Potter smirked at him teasingly. "I"m a Gryffindor. Of course not." They laughed companionably for a few seconds, before they both felt how awkward it was.

"Scarhead," Draco said, just because he felt like he had to insult Potter somehow. Potter was of course strange and grinned gratefully at him.

"Any tips?" Potter asked him, surprising him. Draco always had great tips though.

"I, of course, have a greater expertise on almost everything, so I guess I can spare some time to help you," Draco told him importantly. Potter rolled his eyes, the formality obviously going above his head. "Well," Draco said and thought back to his sixth year, when he told Pansy that he just wanted to be friends and still have sex. He had gotten the most painful slap he'd ever felt. "You should definitely tell her you want to be friends," he said. He couldn't wait to see Potter come back with a handprint on his face.

"That's actually a good idea, Malfoy," Potter said surprised. Draco had no idea why he would be surprised, pretty much all his ideas were good.

He completely forgot that the idea was supposed to be a prank after a compliment.

"Of course, all my ideas are great," Draco told him patiently. Potter uncouthly rolled his eyes again. "I guess you're finally maturing if you can actually notice that now."

"Whatever, Malfoy, I'm going," he paused and looked at him. "Thanks."

Draco then remembered that it was a prank and that he would get slapped, conveniently forgetting that he had genuinely thought it was a good idea a minute ago. He looked at Potter and nodded back, holding back giggles.

Potter had always been a sucker.

After Potter had flooed to the Weasleys – and what kind of name was _The Burrow_, it sounded so _Hufflepuff_ – Draco remembered what he had been doing before. He was packing!

He got up and started to gather stuff._ Damn it_, he thought, he had forgotten to ask Potter if he'd seen his massaging neck pillow...

* * *

"So he's going to break up with her, you promise?" Leah asked Emily.

Emily had explained what she and Harry had talked about while he was making that potion for her face. She told Leah that he didn't tell her not to say anything, even if it was probably common sense, so she could tell her anything she wanted.

"I'm so freaking excited," Leah said, bouncing in place.

"What, why?" Rachel asked puzzled.

"What do you mean why?! Didn't you just hear Emily say Harry's breaking up with his girlfriend?" She asked with a disbelieving look toward Rachel. "And that then he's coming straight up here to ask me to marry him and then have seventy two hours of straight sex?" Leah said.

"Um. I didn't say that, Leah," Emily said, looking amused.

"Sure, sure. But you_ implied _it," Leah said

"No, I definitely didn't do that either," Emily laughed.

"Well, _I_ implied it, so- why are you even focused on this? Does it matter? Rachel's being a douche right now," she said, glaring at Rachel.

"Leah, you're stalling the conversation again," Emily told her rudely. "Rachel, what did you mean when you asked why?"

"Well, it's not like they're going to get together so soon," she said, shrugging.

"Why not?" Leah said, suddenly devastated.

"Well, he might not try to date you right away," Rachel started.

"He will," Emily cut off. "He practically said so."

That cheered Leah up a lot. Her cousin was the best. When she wasn't stealing her boyfriends, at least.

"Okay, even then. It's not like Leah's going to say yes right away," Rachel said, matter-of-factly.

Leah gawked at her. "Why wouldn't I say yes?" she asked, perplexed.

"You don't want him to think you're easy!" Rachel said passionately. "If you do, he'll think you'll spread his legs on mere command! Jesus, Leah. Think!" She even slammed her fist on the table for effect on the last word. She must have taken a speech class when she was at college or something, because that was dramatic.

"But... I _would_ spread my legs on mere command," Leah said, honestly confused at why she wouldn't.

Emily made a face at the topic, but didn't interrupt. She probably knew how important this was so she decided not to interrupt. Or she just found it hilarious. Based on the giggling, Leah would say the second.

"No Leah!" Rachel said. "You'll lose all the power that way!" She took a deep breath. "Okay, hold on real quick," she said and looked around. Leah and Emily watched her curiously. Rachel seemed to finally see what she wanted because picked up the orange juice pitcher from the counter top and a glass. She came back and poured a glass of the juice for herself. Afterward she picked up the glass with one hand and held the pitcher in her other arm, cradling it close to her body protectively, as if holding a baby... or a football.

Leah looked toward Emily, who looked back at her with the same puzzled expression Leah was probably sporting. She looked back at Rachel, who was now drinking deeply from the glass, making very loud gulping noises. She drank about half of it and put the glass down, smacking her lips and then licking them. "Mmmmm. That was really good orange juice." She turned an obviously acted surprised expression towards her. "Oh! Leah! Do you want some as well?" Rachel asked her.

"Er. Sure. Yes, please," Leah replied. She did feel kind of thirsty now. And watching Rachel, while somewhat puzzling, did make her want some orange juice.

"Hmm. Maybe later." Rachel said dismissively. Then she proceeded to drink the rest, making the same outrageous noises. What a bitch.

"What? Give me some, Rachel," Leah said, really wanting some now, if only because Rachel was hogging it.

"Okay, fine. But get another glass, and bring me a napkin," Rachel ordered in a snotty voice. She didn't like the tone, but she wanted some juice now. She quickly did it, and Rachel poured her a glass. Leah immediately drank almost the whole glass in just a couple of gulps. She was right, it was good.

"O-okay?" Emily asked, sounding a bit crept out. "What was the point of that?"

"Shush, Emily," Rachel said quickly. Then she got up again, she brought back about ten bananas. "Okay. Now. Here, Leah. Have a banana." Rachel thrust out a banana in her face. Leah was even more confused, but she could always eat, so she grabbed it.

"Err. Okay." She quickly peeled it and started eating it. Rachel watched her the whole time. It_ was_ a bit creepy so maybe Emily had a right to be crept out. "Thank you," she said after she finished it.

"Want another?" Rachel asked, oddly eagerly, thrusting another one in her face. Now Leah was getting just a tiny bit irritated. What was the point of all this?

"No, thanks," she said, shaking her head. She was getting a turned off of bananas after all that anyways.

"How about a bit more orange juice?" She said, cradling the pitcher for some reason.

"Err, sure. Yeah." She put her glass in front of Rachel.

However, Rachel didn't pour any of the orange juice that she really wanted now.

"HA!" Rachel screamed out suddenly, startling Emily. "See! That proved my point exactly," she said, sounding incredibly smug.

"How?" Emily raised an eyebrow.

"I played hard to get with the orange juice and Leah wanted some, even later, after I made her do a bunch of stuff. I gave the bananas easily and she didn't want any after having one," she said really quickly, pointing at each item when she mentioned them. "Point. Proven." Then she leaned back in her chair, looking for all the world like she just won a gold medal.

Emily laughed loudly. "Rachel, that was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." She paused and shook her head. "It was incredibly amusing though."

"Yeah, coming from the girl who didn't go out with Sam for months," Rachel scoffed.

"That was different," Emily said, not sounding amused anymore. She looked toward Leah once to see if she reacted to the topic, but Leah didn't care about that at the moment. She was turning over what Rachel was saying in her head.

"So you're saying..." Leah started out nervously. "That if I give it too easily to Harry, he's going to not want me after the first few times?" Leah asked Rachel, wide eyed.

"Exactly. Don't be a banana, Leah," she said, and held up a bruised banana. "Be an orange. Be an _orange._" Rachel passionately said. "Why do you think bananas are so cheap, Leah? They're too easy. Unpeeling for anyone who can just grab on to the little top here." Then in one smooth easy motion, she unpeeled it. "Have you ever tried unpeeling an orange Leah? They're fucking really hard to unpeel. Right Emily?" She didn't wait for an answer. "But when you finish it, it's _so fucking_ refreshing. And juicy." Leah found herself nodding along, not being able to disagree with any of it.

Emily cut in. "Okay Rachel. That was just retarded. Please, please stop." She looked toward Leah. "Leah. Harry is better than that. Don't you think so?"

Leah nodded. It was true, she had already established Harry was a perfect guy.

"Leah," Rachel said condescendingly. "Harry is a guy."

Leah gasped. That was true too!

"Leah," Emily said, pleading with her eyes. "Please don't do that. It would be a terrible mistake."

"He's going to hit that and quit that, girl," Rachel said, tutting. Leah half expected her to start sassily snapping her fingers and shaking her head side to side.

"I don't want him to leave me later! That would be even worse!" Leah cried out. She put her head on her arms, laying them down on the table, feeling like she was in over her head.

"You don't have to say no," Rachel said, suddenly soothing. "Just say like, I'm busy that day. Or just be like, well I have to fix the house, but if you clean my car for me, I'd be free earlier. You know, make him work for it." Rachel said, nodding her head.

Leah saw Emily just cross her arms and set her jaw, but didn't fight anymore.

"Or," Rachel continued, "you can be like... I would love to, but you have to gain a few pounds of muscle first," Rachel said. Leah thought Harry's body was perfect, but she understood the sentiment. Even if Rachel was completely ridiculous about it.

"So I only have to play hard to get for a bit right? Not for long?" Leah said with a small voice.

"The longer the better," Rachel said, sympathetically. "Just hold out as long as you can. That's all you can do."

Leah nodded sadly. She hated doing this. She wanted to be with him now, but if that's what it took to keep him, then that's what she would do.

She nodded firmly at Rachel and set her resolve. She wouldn't be easy, she _couldn't _be easy. This wasn't a normal guy that didn't matter if they broke up. She only had one chance at this and she wasn't going to mess this up. She would be a girl that he wouldn't lose interest in.

* * *

Harry stepped out of the floo at the Burrow. He was nervous, and more than a bit scared about how this would end. He just hoped that Mrs. Weasley wasn't there, or would at least not make a big deal out of it.

He wasn't counting on it though, he had rarely seen Mrs. Weasley outside the Burrow and he had rarely seen her _not_ make a big deal out of something. Especially concerning her children and even more when it was her daughter.

It was actually George that was the first to notice him. "Harrikins!" The now lone twin was in the living room, he had been working on something for the shop. At least Harry really hoped so.

The hope was because next to George was an unmoving Harry Potter, staring back at him. Harry blinked. "What is that?" He absentmindedly waved his hand over his clothes to vanish the soot away.

"Harrikins," George tutted at him, walking over and wrapping an arm around his shoulders easily, "I know that you try not to look at your ugly mug very often, but you really should recognize who that is, you should at least see it on magazines often enough."

"I know what it is," Harry said, unamused.

George ignored him. "You should get mirrors in your room," George looked at him seriously. "You know, for when you shag."

Harry closed his eyes in exasperation. "Doesn't it bother you at all that I'm dating your sister when you say stuff like-"

"But of course," George said, either ignoring Harry, or just purposely trying to annoy him, "it would make you look uglier, compared to a hot girl." George scratched his chin in contemplation. "I don't know, it's a tough choice. On one hand, it could make you look better by comparison... I guess it depends on how out of your league she is."

Harry just stared, waiting for it to be over. It was almost common knowledge that the more you fought George, the longer it would take for him to finish. Ron was the only one that hadn't learned that yet. He heard the door to the kitchen open behind them. He looked back and saw Ginny coming inside with Ron and Hermione in tow. He went to say hi, but his face was grabbed roughly by George.

"Guys, we need help," George said solemnly. "Do you think Harry would look uglier or prettier if you put a fanny next to it?"

Harry looked at his three best friends. Ginny's face was a mix of a little embarrassment and irritation, Ron was slightly amused but completely confused. Hermione's reaction really surprised him though.

Oddly enough, Hermione seemed to take the question seriously. She seemed to be thinking it over. Harry didn't know if it was her pregnancy, or just her penchant for trying to answer every question correctly. "It depends on what it looks like," Hermione finally said. "Is it hairy? Shaved?" she asked. Harry almost choked.

George however lit up at someone taking him seriously. Harry thought he saw him try to shift his pants, but it could have been something else. If George had been really that excited about someone finally playing along, then that was kind of sad.

"Great question, Hermione!" George boomed. "I would think at least cut short, because our hero here has to have the best," George nodded to himself. "Can't have the vanquisher of Voldemort around big ole' hairy ones."

"Hmm," Hermione said, nodding her head absently. Harry really couldn't believe what the pregnancy had done to his prim and proper best friend. She turned her head from side to side staring at Harry. "What color?" Hermione asked, looking for all the world as if she was in a classroom. Ron and Ginny had their eyes bugged out, just staring at her.

"Red, I would hope!" Ron finally spoke, shouting. He then seemed to think about what he said and started to turn red.

Everyone then turned to Ginny, who made a small yelp, and then crossed her arms uncomfortably. "I shave!" she exclaimed, though it was probably unintentionally because she covered her mouth afterward.

Ron grimaced and looked away, turning even more red. George grinned happily at the awkwardness, as he was prone to do. He was about to say something else, probably to top it all off, but Hermione beat him to it.

"How about black hair. Trimmed black hair. Then it would make him look better." Then she nodded to herself satisfied, her face looking at George expectantly, waiting for him to agree. Harry wondered if she was waiting for the five points toward Gryffindor.

"Excellently executed explanation, Hermione! Just exemplary." George said boisterously.

Hermione seemed to take it as a challenge. "That was an exceedingly expectant exhibit of you," she retorted this with a face that said she could do this too. The pregnancy was making her extremely unpredictable.

Harry grinned, he couldn't help himself and joined in. Maybe it was the nerves, but he felt whimsical at the moment. "That was an extremely excessive exercise."

Ginny got into it. "You guys are too excitable." Harry thought she could have done a little better than that.

"I wanna try..." Ron whined. "Ex... ex..." They all waited patiently. Ron's ears were turning red. "I can't do this. This is bloody exhausting." He slumped down. They all smiled and waited amusedly for him to get it. "Oi! I got one! I'm brilliant," He smiled happily.

No one talked for a few seconds. Each probably proud of themselves. Harry knew he was. Although Ron looked like he was trying to get more.

"So why are there two Harrys?" Ginny finally broke the silence. Her voice brought Harry's mood down, he had to break up with her now.

"Oh!" George grinned widely, his voice gaining the ridiculous salesman voice he used at the shop. "To exchange for him, examine this exce-"

"George," Harry cut in, now a bit moody, "just say what it is."

George pouted for a second, but he smiled again just as quickly. He really was too excitable. Harry grimaced at thinking the word.

"Fine. It's for the shop. I _was_ thinking that I'd sell it as a sex toy. Can you imagine how much the older ladies would pay for a full bodied Harry Potter you can have sex with?" He looked at all of them as if expecting them to agree, no one said anything. "Exactly. A lot. But now I'm trying to find a way to sell them in other ways and only keep the special sex Potters for special request. They'd be more expensive that way too," George said, contemplatively. He went around and poked a bit at the fake Harry's crotch, making the real Harry extremely uncomfortable.

"Er. Mate, can you stop doing that in front of me?" Harry asked, fidgeting.

"You're not selling that," Ginny piped in resolutely. "Until he breaks up with me for the slag, I hold rights on any Potter sex anything," she said, crossing her arms.

Harry couldn't hold back the wince no matter how much he tried. He _was_ here to break up with her after all. Unfortunately, Ginny noticed it.

"Ugh, I can call her a slag if I want. It makes me feel better," Ginny pouted at Harry.

Harry winced. George, of course, tried to make a joke that made everything worse. "I don't think it's about that, Ginnikins. I think he's actually here to free his wings. Get rid of the Weasley Chains."

"What?" Ginny asked back confused.

"Huh?" George asked back, always one to promote confusion.

"Are you here to break up with her?" Hermione asked him. She was usually the one with the tact, and that was completely tactless. The weirdest thing was that Harry thought she looked hopeful. He could only hope for that, it'd be better than getting hexed.

His nervousness also came back multiplied by ten. He looked at Ginny, who looked very anxious and scared and he felt like the biggest prick right then. It was almost enough to make him change his mind, but he thought of coming back and telling Leah (who Emily was sure to tell he would be single soon) that he was still going out with Ginny. Thinking about how crushed Leah's face would be brought him so much more pain that he had to fight the urge to scream that it was over at Ginny and then run away.

"Er. Maybe we should talk in private, Ginny," Harry winced, confirming that he was here to break up with her.

Ginny sat down heavily, all her energy seeming to leave her. "No, they're family," she sighed. "They can hear it too."

"I'm just gonna..." George said, pointing to the kitchen and quickly leaving.

"Well, I'm staying," Ron said stubbornly. He was already glaring at Harry. "Someone has to stay and pick up the pieces, since you're going to break her heart and leave her."

"Wow, Ron. That was dramatic," Hermione said, looking at him impressed. "I mean, it was completely unnecessary, since Ginny did reject him when he proposed, but still..." she went on, ignorant of Ginny's and Ron's betrayed looks. "It was still very impressive," she said proudly. "I might even upgrade you to a whole emotional tablespoon instead of a teaspoon." She looked at him and made her eyes wide as if expecting him to get excited. "Would you like that?"

Ron just glared at her a bit, and murmured "whatever". Then he seemed to come to himself and turn back on Harry. "Well, go on! Do it, you arse."

Harry was used to his temper, so he tried to ignore it and looked at Ginny who was staring at him with wide eyes. She seemed to be pleading with him not to do it, so he just shook his head a little, showing that he was already set on this. She deflated again. "Alright. Go ahead Harry," she said dejectedly.

All three of them were staring at Harry expectantly. "What? You want me to actually say it?"

"Well, yeah I guess..." Ginny said unsurely.

"Er. Why? You already know what this is about..." Harry hedged.

"It does seem unnecessary doesn't it? Hermione mused.

"Well he's got to say it! It'd be cowardly not to!" Ron shouted angrily. "Or don't, and stay together. You can do that too," he suggested halfheartedly, but not stopping his glare.

"Sorry Ron, I already made my choice," Harry stated firmly.

"I don't understand why," Ron sulked. "I thought you said that the bird was just happy being friends."

"She hasn't pressured me. I..." he faltered. He looked toward Ginny's heartbroken face and didn't want to just say that he wanted someone else more, right in front of her.

Ron had no such qualm. "So you just want to go from one bird to the other! I always knew you were arrogant, but this is just-" Harry tuned him out then. He saw Hermione who looked quite pleased with herself. He didn't know why, but he wouldn't be surprised if she had been subtly pushing toward this. She never had encouraged his relationship with Ginny.

He looked at Ginny who seemed to be ignoring Ron as well. She didn't look as defeated as he feared. She looked more... resigned, like she knew this was coming. She probably could, he hadn't exactly been subtle about his infatuation.

"It's okay, Harry," Ginny said sadly. "I should have appreciated you more anyways. I always just assumed you'd be there in a decade when I was ready for marriage and family. I knew I missed my chance as soon as I'd heard of the bond." She wiped a tear from her eye.

Harry silently agreed. "I'm sorry," was pretty much all he could say.

"I reckon she'll do a better job, yeah?" Ginny asked with a weak smile.

"If it makes you feel any better, she's at the other extreme," Harry attempted to joke. "She said she'd stalk me for the rest of my life, even if I never dated her." Despite how bad it probably sounded, it made him incredibly happy. He probably had the most inappropriate grin.

Hermione beamed at them both. "Oh I'm so happy for you guys," she said, quite inappropriately.

"Er... I just got dumped, Hermione," Ginny frowned at her.

"Eh," Hermione shrugged. "It's just that-"

Whatever she was about to explain was interrupted by the slam of the opening kitchen door. When Harry turned to look, along with the rest, he saw a large man in the door way. The man walked in confidently with familiarity. He was only wearing a small shirt that seemed way too tight for how much muscle he had. The mystery man was wearing small shorts that showed off way too much leg for a man. Harry leaned away from him, automatically.

He wasn't intimidated, he was just kinda crept out. It wasn't the stature that crept him out though. It wasn't even the tight clothing.

It was the very obvious, and very obscene bulge in the tight shorts.

"Ginevra!" The bloke boomed out happily. He had also tried to roll the 'r' to sound foreign. He wasn't so successful. Not only that, but when he turned, it made it clear exactly who it was to Harry.

Ginny seemed freaked out as well. "Err. What-"

"Ginevra..." the male cut her off, tutting. "I have been waiting for hours," he now also seemed to try an Italian accent that reminded Harry more of a Russian accent instead, "we have sex soon, yes?" Harry thought he switched to Arabian now. He wasn't sure if it was intentional or not. The male also grabbed his crotch at the end, pulling it up and down in a suggestive way. It also suggested that it wasn't real, since it inverted on one of the shakes. If it hadn't been so obviously fake, Harry knew he would have seemed gay for staring at it.

Harry looked toward Ron and Hermione to see how they were taking it. Hermione had a hand clapped over her mouth, laughing hard. Ginny was still freaked out, but looked at Harry in apology every few seconds. Ron...

Ron was still yelling at Harry. Apparently, someone had silenced him. He wondered it had been Harry himself that had done it. Harry shrugged and turned toward the entertainment again.

"Oh! Is this your boyfriend?" the bloke looked at him in completely fake surprise. "I am so sorry for you not being able to satisfy my _Ginevra_," he tried to roll it again, just as unsuccessfully. He also seemed to realize he had forgotten to make an accent, so he tried again. This time it seemed to lean towards French. "She has not cheated on you. _Yet._ I fear that you only have a very short time to make her change her mind," he leaned forward and seemed to try to intimidate Harry, "before it's. Too. Late." He widened his eyes at Harry, and ever so slowly leaned back again.

Harry just barely managed to hold his laughter in. "George, you're still missing your ear," Harry informed him through snickers.

"Really?" George asked, dropping character completely. "Oh," he shrugged, completely unashamed. "Sorry Ginny, you lost him," he said. Then he reached into his shorts, bringing out a banana, which he proceeded to eat merrily.

Everyone just stared at him while he kept eating his banana. Well, except for Ron. He was still screaming, apparently.

"Maybe I should go..." Harry said slowly, trying to back away while everyone(except for Ron) seemed to be in a better mood.

"I'll walk with you," Ginny said, now morosely again.

They walked silently outside, where Harry was going to apparate to Diagon Alley for some more blood pops to give to Courtney and the Cullens. When they were to where the non-Weasleys could apparate out, he turned to her with the most apologetic face he could make. It could have probably been better, he thought.

"I really am extremely sorry," Harry said sadly.

Ginny looked sad too. "I know you tried to fight it, but I could tell it wasn't going to work," she sighed. "I really was trying to get you to propose again the last week before you left," she admitted, her voice breaking a little.

Harry grimaced inwardly. He felt like the biggest prick in the world. "I'm so so-"

"And I'd been beginning to change my mind and had started to want a family and everything," she cut him off, crying in earnest now.

"Shit, Ginny. I'm-"

"No, no. It's not your fault. You tried for _years_. You did nothing wrong," she said, calming strangely fast. He felt extremely relieved at the fact that she didn't blame him. "It's _her_ fault," Ginny spit out. He grimaced outwardly now.

"Ginny, it's not-"

"I know! I know! Just let me pretend!" Ginny said exasperatedly.

That did make him smile a little. It had always been cute when she was petulant.

"So, would there be no point in waiting for you then?" Ginny asked, halfheartedly.

Harry immediately shook his head, even though it would hurt her. "No point. As soon as I decided that I wanted to try with her, I could pretty much tell it was a lifelong thing."

A little sob escaped her. "Are you going to get married soon, then?" she asked with a depressed voice.

"No, that'd be just... no," Harry laughed. "I'm not going to wait to ask her out though," he said almost defiantly. "Sorry," he added, because he just felt like an arse then.

"S'kay," she muttered. They were silent for a few moments. Ginny was looking down at the floor, when she blushed a little and said, "I hear that break up shags are good..."

Harry just shook his head. The bond was apparently working fast, because now that he fully accepted that he wanted Leah, the thought of having sex with Ginny didn't even appeal to him at all. Not even if he ignored the emotional aspects.

Ginny sighed. She crossed her arms and wiped at her eyes saying, "Fine, I hope you're happy while she's miserable, or whatever sensitive thing I'm supposed to say."

Harry laughed at the petulance. "I hope we can still be friends, yeah?"

"Once I get a new boyfriend, yes," Ginny replied primly, even while she was still sniffing a little. She then suddenly hugged him fiercely for a last time. "Don't come back for a couple of weeks, okay? I don't want to see how happy you are," she mumbled into his shirt.

"I'll make sure to come only after a fight after the two weeks," he replied, then stepped away from her. She didn't seem like she had anything else to say, so he just stared at her silently and raised his hand to say bye. It wouldn't be goodbye, they'd be friends again.

He apparated out, thinking of Leah to cheer him up.

* * *

Leah had been rallying her resolve all morning. She could make him wait. She could do this.

For the last hour or so that she had been at Emily's, Rachel would occasionally look at her and give her an approving smile. Emily would glare at her.

Finally, just before noon, Harry showed up. He knocked and Emily let him in. Leah wouldn't play jump up to go get him stuff anymore, so she stayed in her seat. She saw Emily shake her head, and Rachel grinned at her proudly.

"Hey guys." Harry smiled at everyone. Leah smiled weakly back and looked away quickly. That was easier than she thought it would be. She thought she would have to go hug him now, but apparently getting ready for this worked wonders.

"So how did it go?" Emily asked sounding worried.

"I assume you told them already?" he asked Emily with a small smile, to which she nodded sheepishly. "It's alright, I wasn't trying to hide it. She took it well enough. Didn't seem too surprised when I broke up with her."

"That's... sad for her, but a lot better than it could have gone right?" Emily asked a mix of happy and pretending not to be. Leah didn't bother pretending not to be, she grinned like a fool.

Rachel gave her a warning glance, so Leah looked away from Harry, so that he wouldn't see how absolutely ecstatic she was the he was single. Hell, it was hard not to go and jump him right now. If it wasn't for Rachel, he'd already be on his back on the kitchen table.

She took a deep breath to calm down and reminded herself that if she didn't play it cool, she would lose him. That brought her mood down again.

"Yeah, it was definitely good. We might even be able to stay friends later on when it's not so fresh." He then took a deep breath and looked over at Leah, pinning her with the same intense gaze from that morning. She felt her breath catch. "Leah. I know I just ended it, but I don't see any reason to wait," he paused for only a second, but enough to show her that he was still nervous, and for her heart to start pounding in her chest. "Would you maybe like to go to dinner-"

Leah cut him off, summoning all the will that she ever had and put that all into a single effort to deny him.

All that work from the whole morning, all the warning that Rachel said; she used them all to make herself do this.

It was hard, but she fought against herself as hard as she could.

"YES!" She shrieked. She then jumped up off her chair and threw herself at Harry, wrapping her arms around him tightly, throwing all her weight at him. He caught her and held her just as tight, spinning in a circle to get rid of the momentum that she threw at him. She looked up at him and kissed him on the cheek, smiling so wide her face was hurting. He was smiling back, chuckling at her.

Emily laughed delightedly behind them, clapping her hands together softly once and holding them in front of her. "That was so sweet," she cooed at them, "I wish I could go with you and just 'aw' at everything you guys do," she beamed at them, looking at them like her new favorite soap opera.

"Really?" Rachel said, looking disgusted, while Emily laughed again happily. "That was you playing hard to get? You didn't even finish the sentence!"

"Why would I play hard to get?" Harry asked puzzled. Leah loved that he had the same reaction as her. She hadn't let go of him yet, and she wouldn't be doing it anytime soon.

"Ugh. You too?" Rachel said, scowling. Then she straightened up, and seemed to turn to teacher mode. "Okay, it's like this," she said, grabbing the orange juice.

"No, no, no," Emily said laughing and setting all the fruits away from Rachel's reach. "Oh, I'm just so happy." She went toward them and wrapped her arms around them both, who still had not let go of each other. "I'm so happy you didn't listen to Rachel, Leah."

"Me too," Leah mumbled against Harry's neck. And she was. She couldn't have said no even if she tried. She had taken one look at Harry's face and she was gone. He looked nervous and excited. He was nervous she would say no, even though she imprinted on him and would do any amount of stuff he wanted to without ceremony. She absolutely loved how unassuming he was. She also loved how he didn't make a big deal out of it, he just went and asked her. He didn't wait for a supposed perfect moment or anything that Leah would have thought corny. He also didn't wait after he broke up with Ginny. He seemed to know exactly what she wanted and there was no reason to wait. She couldn't have possibly said no to him.

Rachel huffed in displeasure again. Leah looked at her, without untangling from Harry. "You don't know how hard this was for me, Rachel," she said a little indignantly, "I've been waiting for him for so long. You have no idea how _depressing_ it was to wait as long as I did, so you should be _proud_ of how long I waited," Leah said passionately. "I went through _hell_ here, have a little sympathy!" she shouted out.

Emily snorted. "Bullshit. You've been practically swooning every time you came back from Harry's."

Leah looked at Emily trying to look outraged and trying to muster up enough fight in her. She gave it up and just put her face in Harry's shirt again. She'd win the argument later, her imprint just asked her out.

"Maybe you should let go of him now, Leah," Emily suggested, completely unwisely in Leah's opinion, though she could pretty much hear the smile in Emily's voice.

"No," Leah immediately responded. It was probably her favorite argument winner. She almost never lost when she just refused everything.

She heard Emily sigh. "At least sit down, Harry."

Leah felt Harry move his hand from her back and then she felt a comfortable feeling couch hit her legs as she sat down on his lap, meaning he probably just made it. She responded by nuzzling his neck like the dog she was. He chuckled at her. "So I didn't quite finish, I was going to say if you wanted to ask if you wanted to go tonight?" he asked her.

She just nodded, completely too happy to say anything. Jokingly, she thought it was almost to the point where she would start crying in a few seconds if she kept feeling that happy. She laughed a bit at her joke, but completely froze when she heard the crack in her voice. Was she-?

She was! She was actually crying!

"Leah?" Emily asked. Leah took a quick peek out her hair. Both Emily and Rachel look completely astounded. It made sense, she guessed. It was probably the first time that they'd ever seen her even close to crying.

"I'm not crying!" she denied immediately, making it overly obvious that she _was,_ in fact, crying. It also didn't help that she sniffed right afterward.

Rachel laughed at her cruelly, like the bitch that Leah knew she was. "You are! Oh, that_ is_ cute," she exclaimed. Emily immediately agreed with her in the same high pitched girly voice.

Leah was about to exclaim how _insensitive_ and _composed_ and _tough_ she really was, and that this wasn't what it looked like, when Harry kissed her forehead and ran a hand through her short hair. She closed her mouth again and gave the most ridiculous sigh she'd ever done, completely shattering any argument she was about to say. She regrouped and tried valiantly though.

"I'm _tough_," she mumbled out.

She _had _tried very valiantly.

Harry chuckled against her, making her forget her argument.

"I know you are," he agreed, like the good imprint that he was. "I'll come back and pick you up tonight, okay?"

"No. I'm not letting go. _Ever_!" she exclaimed vehemently. The effect she wanted was ruined because she mumbled it into his shirt.

Harry laughed softly, completely ignoring her intense declarations. If they weren't so ridiculous, she would have huffed to show her displeasure.

"I know, but I really do need to go get ready..." Harry told her, quite insensitively, she thought.

She wasn't letting go anyways. "But-"

He cut her off, the prick. "How about if I give you a gift." She always knew he wasn't a prick, really, he was quite wonderful.

"You're spoiling me," Leah informed him.

Harry winced. "Yeah, I'm sorry," he seemed remorseful for some reason, "I'll save it then."

She bolted up at that. "What? No! Where did you get the idea I didn't want it? Gimme!"

He grinned at her cheekily and opened his mouth to make some smart remark, she was sure, but she glared at him so he seemed to think better on it.

"It's not really a good gift, it's just something- it's really a hand me down..." he started hedging. She frowned. Was he really going to give her something like used clothes? Well, that actually was a pretty good gift now that she thought about it.

"I'm sure it's fine, Harry. You're way too modest. Now, Gimme," she held out her hand again.

He shrugged and took out his car keys from his pocket, dropping them on her hand.

"Is it in the car?" Leah asked.

Harry smiled. "No."

Leah cocked her head, looking at him confused.

Rachel gasped, drawing her attention. "You didn't!" Rachel exclaimed.

She looked back at Harry, silently asking him what Rachel was talking about.

"Well, I don't really like driving that much," Harry made a face. "Unless it's just for entertainment, it's dreadfully slow."

As she got it, her eyes grew wider and wider. "You're giving it to me?" Leah breathed out.

Harry shrugged. "I like apparating better," he said simply.

The keys felt heavy all of the sudden, as if they weighed as much gold as they were worth. All she could do was keep looking between the keys and her imprint. As she was starting to get over the fact that he just handed her something worth almost half a million dollars, she noticed his expression. He looked nervous and fidgety. He didn't want her to make a big deal out of it.

Then she wouldn't.

"Thanks," she said simply, giving him a great smile. His smile was even bigger and inappropriately grateful, considering he had just given her a gift. She looked towards her friends – and didn't that feel like an unfamiliar word to her – and saw them with different expressions. Emily had apparently figured out their little unspoken hints, or at least got the essence of it, because she looked towards them with misty, smiling eyes. She looked like she was fighting the urge to just coo and 'aw' at them.

Then again, that was what she always looked like when watching them.

Rachel though, was still gawking at Harry. She finally seemed to think of something to say. "How fucking rich _are_ you?!" she asked tactlessly.

"I don't know, I have a few million Galleons in the bank," he shrugged uncomfortably.

Leah looked at the keys – now _her_ keys – guilty. "Harry, this is almost half a million, you can go and sell it and not lose so much," Leah said, but her hands clutching the keys treacherously.

Harry looked uncomfortable when he spoke, "well, the exchange rate for galleons isn't one to one..." Leah arched an eyebrow at him. "Fine, it's about a hundred pounds per galleon."

"A hundred..." Rachel breathed out.

"Actually," Emily said, in a bit of her old know-it-all voice from when they were kids, ",the pound is one point six dollars right now, so a galleon is worth about a hundred and sixty."

Leah bugged her eyes out even more.

"A lot of people left me stuff in their wills during the war," he said then shook his head as if shaking the bad thoughts out. "So yeah, don't feel bad about it," he told Leah.

"Please, _please_, trade me boyfriends," Rachel begged her. As if she would ever trade her imprint for anything in the world. She looked at Rachel like if she was retarded.

"I would never trade my boyf-" she paused and almost blushed a bit. She turned to Harry. "Err. I don't think- We're not-" She looked at Harry. "Are we?"

He just shrugged and smiled cheekily at her, not helping her out in the least bit. She could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Having fun watching me be awkward?" she tried to growl at him. It came out more like a cranky little girl.

"Yes," he told her simply.

"Maybe I _should_ trade with Rachel," she grumbled.

Harry just smiled at her, not even bothering to pretend to take her seriously. Really, he could at least _pretend_ to be somewhat jealous or something. I mean, she was supposed to go on a date with him later... she smiled goofily at him, forgetting whatever train of thought she had. She was going on a_ date_ with her _imprint_. She wanted to squeal so badly, but she wanted to at least hold it in until he left.

She started to daydream about everything they were going to do. Whether it was a huge event or just sitting on a blanket in the forest, she didn't care. She _was_ curious though. She was going to try and extract it from him.

"So..." she said smoothly. "What are we doing tonight then?" she asked, acting completely disinterestedly. She could be quite good at acting when she wanted.

She glanced at Harry to see what he would say. He was watching her amusedly, "Nice try," he said. She huffed, dropping the act.

"Well, I need to know!" Leah whined. "You should at least tell Emily so that she can help me," she said, compromising. "You can whisper it to her," she said cunningly, since she would be able to hear it even from across the street.

"Alright," he said and waved his hand, putting up a silencing charm. Leah pouted. Then she had to sit there and watch them discuss a date that was for _her_. It was completely unfair. She tried to pick out hints of what it was about by watching Emily's reactions. It was completely useless. That girl pretty much cooed and 'aw'd at completely everything. She was either extremely excitable, or it was an extremely good date.

Finally he waved his hand again and dropped the magic. Leah had been pouting the whole time, even ignoring Rachel, who had been trying to give her tips.

"I'm off," Harry announced. He looked at Emily sharply. "This time, don't tell Leah," he smiled at her though, making his tone have no bite.

"Of course!" Emily immediately agreed. "I don't want to ruin it for her."

Harry looked at Leah then and she made sure to glower at him for talking about her date with him to... she was going on a _date_ with him. She smiled goofily again, she was completely hopeless. He seemed to notice exactly what went on in her mind, because he chuckled and hugged her one last time. "I'll come pick you up at seven, that alright?"

"Five," Leah retorted.

"Six thirty," he countered immediately.

She thought it over. "Six," she said, giving him quite the compromise.

"How about I come over at five, but we don't leave until seven?" he haggled her cheerfully.

That was even better than leaving at six. "Deal!" she said happily.

He laughed at her a little, and they fell silent. Leah had still not looked away from Harry, and for once, he didn't look away from her either. But then gave her that same heated stare from that morning.

He brought up a hand and grabbed a short lock of her hair. It was the same one that always got in her eye, so she tried to keep it away. She often thought about cutting it, but it kinda looked good, so she didn't want to look even more manly.

Right then though, it had been in the way of their stare, so he apparently took it upon himself to fix it. She thought he was just pulling it out of the way, but she saw him feeling it between his fingers a little. Then he tucked it behind her ear. That alone would have made her have the urge to kiss him. He hadn't stopped there though, he had then ran a finger on the outside of her ear, all the way from the top to the lobe, making her absolutely pant in lust.

She didn't know what it was but something made him calm down because with an apologetic smile he stood up and said bye to all of them and left out the door. She hadn't managed to say anything, and the crack of his teleporting made her jump. Looking around, she saw Emily watching her raptly, probably deciding on how to write a dirty novel out of her life, while Rachel just looked a bit disgusted.

"Good god Leah, I can smell the hormones from here," she said unkindly.

Emily just rolled her eyes. "Leah, that was beautiful," she said emotionally.

Leah was still trying to calm down, so she didn't say anything.

"Emily," Rachel said. "She can't do that again with him on the date. He was the first one to break gaze," she turned to Leah disappointedly. "You should have broken gaze first," she said as if she knew what she was talking about. "During the date, you need to tease him, not the other way around. For example, you need to flirt with other guys at the restaurant to make him jealous, else he'll cheat on you," she told her passionately. "In fact, you should cheat on him first," she nodded emphatically.

"What? Rachel, that's demented!" Emily exclaimed.

"No it's not!" Rachel said. "Look, I'll show you," and then she started looking for items again.

Leah tuned them both out and daydreamed about her date. She had a fleeting thought, wondering how Sam would manage to ruin this one.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Leah was happier than she'd ever been in her life. Happier than she could have thought she could be.

Their date had just ended, and he had been a perfect gentleman. He'd done everything perfectly, doting on her as much as he could, holding out the chair for her, opening doors for her; he did everything perfectly. When the waitress came, he didn't look away from Leah when he ordered. He hadn't looked away from her face the whole night – except when she wasn't looking, where he would try to discreetly peek at her body.

She'd dressed in a small red dress and red shoes. Nothing else.

He, of course, was dressed perfectly in a tight long sleeve shirt and black pants, making her drool. At least she had been much more discreet than him when she ogled.

Now they were driving home, and Harry had asked her to stop the car on the side of the road. He even hadn't bothered making an excuse, it had been too obvious.

They couldn't restrain their passion anymore.

As soon as they pulled over, their lips had met with wild abandon. They had crashed onto each other, and Leah being the stronger one, she ended up sprawled over him, driving her tongue deeper into his mouth.

However, Harry wasn't satisfied being passive. He had risen to the occasion, battling her for dominance every step.

Right now, his hands were on her thighs, while hers were tearing his shirt apart.

As retaliation, his hands went under her dress, to cup her bare ass. He pulled his mouth off her neck to raise an eyebrow at her lack of underwear.

She just smiled at him sexily, which made him growl and attack her neck again. She almost lost the war then, but settled for just losing the battle and grabbing his face away from her neck so that she could regroup.

His smile was there even while she attacked his tongue with hers. She would have to fix that.

Before she could though, he had sneak attacked while she was on the defensive. One of his hands let go of her ass and went to her front, making wonderful use of a dress with no underwear.

She gave a soft whimper, begging him to be merciful.

He wasn't.

He immediately attacked her, moving hard and fast. Leah loved it as much as she hated losing. But she could be gracious in defeat. She hung on to his neck with both arms, signaling submission. He took full advantage, slipping a finger inside-.

"Leah! I don't need to hear my sister do that!" Seth screamed from downstairs.

Leah growled frustratedly and ran her hand under the shower nozzle.

Well, her mood was gone.

She sighed and took a few seconds to even her breathing. It was probably for the best anyways, she could get very lost in her daydreaming, and she would end up using all the hot water by the time she was done, or Harry would get there before she was done, and she didn't want to waste a single second by making him wait.

* * *

"Hello Sue, Seth," Sam said as he walked into Leah's house. Leah just stared at him, a little astonished at his presumptuousness.

"Oi! What the hell?" she asked Sam, fully intending to rant at him about how he should knock before coming in their house, and how he should greet her as well if he was to greet everyone in the room. "Isn't it-"

"Ha!" she was cut off by her brother. She loved interrupting people. It was one of her favorite things to do, but she had to admit that it really _was_ annoying when it happened to her. Maybe she would stop. At the very least she would yell at him. "You copied that from Harry!" he yelled, pointing at her accusingly, referring to the 'oi'. She flushed a bit inwardly at being caught. "Isn't it awesome?" Seth enthused. "It sounds to cool. Oi! Oi!"

Leah grinned, completely forgetting about yelling at him. "It is isn't it?" she sighed. "My imprint is too awesome for words."

Seth nodded, agreeing with the obvious.

Sam coughed to get her attention.

"Don't bother, you know it's true. I love Emily again, but Harry is much cooler," she said, without looking at Sam.

"No, actually, you're wrong," Sam told her and then spoke before she could correct him. "The council has requested," she snorted at his pompous tone, "that Harry Potter attend our next bonfire." He paused and glared at her. "And make sure to follow the rules about who is allowed. _Both of you_."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be there." she said dismissively.

"Leah..." her mother said. Probably wanting her to be more polite or stop cursing or something stupid. She really would have figured by now that it was never going to happen, but that was parenthood, she guessed.

"Sure mom," she said reflexively.

Seth snorted and turned around, facing Sam. "She might forget, she has a_ date_ tonight," Leah saw Seth even wink ridiculously as he said date. There was also a really quick glance at her that she caught from Seth. It looked... like he was trying to make Sam jealous? Leah knew that he had tried doing stuff like that before, and she had always loved him for it. But she thought he'd stop after she imprinted.

Affection swelled up in her chest.

"Do you need me to speak with him and make sure he treats you well?" Sam asked her solemnly. Leah widened her eyes a tiny bit. Was he jealous?

Almost reflexively, she expected the glee that used to come when she ever thought he was jealous because of her. It always turned out to be wrong, but she would always feel it. Now though... nothing. She sighed in relief. Then she checked again just in case... there was a little something there... she dug deeper to feel it and noticed what it was.

Ah, yes. Indignation. Because he thought she'd need protecting.

Well, it wouldn't do for him to keep thinking that. She saw Seth raise his bowl of cereal up to his mouth and take a big mouthful of the nasty goop that was already soggy. How he could eat it after leaving it out for more than a minute, she would never know. It was worse when he got the really flaky kind of cereal that would turn to mush into cereal. Insta-mush. That's what she would call it.

It was terribly convenient this time though, because he was still looking right at Sam still, over the top of the bowl, waiting for an answer or something. Or just thinking about porn, you could never tell with teenage boys.

She waited for his next mouthful.

"No, that's okay. If we don't make it to the bonfire, we probably took a couple of stamina potions and fucked for a few days," she said casually.

She couldn't have planned it better. Sam dropped his jaw and looked at her shocked. Really, how could he be after knowing her for so long, she'd never know. Her mom of course, shrieked a loud, "Leah!".

Her brother, bless his loving, giant heart, sprayed the mushy goop all over Sam's front and face; and the best part – Sam's open mouth. Not only that, but Seth spit it out so hard, that thanks to his supernatural strength, the half full bowl went flying toward Sam as well, conveniently hitting him right in the crotch.

Really, she couldn't have planned – no, even _imagined_ – it better than that. Sam dropped to the floor, a dude's chewed food in his mouth, a wet crotch that looked like he peed himself, food all over his front, and bruised balls.

Leah immediately dropped to the floor, shrieking in laughter. She laughed and _laughed_. Then she tried to calm herself and remembered that she had to go show Jacob, Quil and Embry this, and she immediately started laughing again picturing their reactions.

She would need to buy her brother a nice gift.

When she finally got back under control, Sam was trying to clean up with Sue's help. She looked at her brother and saw him holding his mouth trying not to laugh as much as Leah. She was just so _so proud_.

She went over and hugged him. "I love you, Seth. I really do."

He beamed back, a bit too brightly for her taste, but he deserved it this time. "It was all you sis, you're the mastermind."

Leah almost 'aw'd. Modest, too. Maybe, just maybe, she could stop pretending he wasn't her brother in public.

She'd give him a trial run later.

They kept beaming at each other, completely ignoring Sam who was now glowering. "You did that on purpose!" Sam complained at Leah.

"Uh huh," she kept beaming.

Whatever he was going to say, it was swallowed, because Emily walked in – and really no one knocks anymore? At least she's family, and Leah conceded that as her best friend she had more right. "What's up?" Emily asked happily. "Oh, what happened Sam?" she looked between him and Leah's satisfied face. She drew the obvious conclusion, putting on an exasperated face. "Leah..."

"It was an accident!" she said immediately.

"Mhm," Emily said, unimpressed. "And was this an accident on purpose?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, Seth didn't mean to do it, and had no prior knowledge before the event," she said honestly and quite informatively, if she thought so herself.

Emily rolled her eyes and looked at her mom. "Sue, was this accident on purpose?"

Her mom, of course, snitched and told the whole story in full detail. Obviously, she still liked Emily more than her own daughter, which was just despicable. Leah had to sit there indignantly and listen to everything that happened all over and watch Emily as she looked at Leah disappointingly and making her feel guilty about doing it all in the first place...

Oh, who was she kidding. She listened raptly and laughed with Seth like hyenas every time she mentioned another thing that hit Sam. By the time it was finished, she was wiping tears out of her eyes. Who would have thought that her mother was such a great story teller? Even if it was completely unintentional. Her mother really _had_ tried to make her feel bad about what she did... but it just made her even more proud.

She would tell Harry about it later, he'd be proud of her. She knew he would.

It really was amazing how good his sense of humor was. He had even helped her feel better about her whole miserable harpy period with it! One day, she had told him how in the few weeks before she had phased, she had even egged Sam's house in the night a few times. Sam could tell it was her, but couldn't say anything because the only reason he knew was because of his supernatural sense of smell. She had put her head down when she told him how she even threw a rock through his bedroom window, hoping it would cost him a lot of money. Then one particularly bitter night, she had slashed one of his tires so that he couldn't drive to work. He had even had to go to the old lady next door and ask for some money to borrow, because he couldn't afford getting the tire fixed, and he couldn't go to work without getting some really weird looks for being able to run all the way there. It had been extremely humiliating for Sam, and it was probably one of the meanest things that she'd ever done.

By the time she finished she felt like she was almost getting sucked into that pit of despair that she was constantly in back then... and then Harry laughed. And he laughed loudly. She had stared at him in surprise, so he paused his laughter for a second to look at her and said "he had to go to the old lady, and knew it was you... but he couldn't do anything..." and then he was laughing too hard to talk anymore. She felt almost all her guilty blow away when he laughed, because right then, it did seem extremely hilarious. Sam was a supernatural being, nothing that she did could have _truly_ hurt him.

It was just all very annoying and humiliating. She laughed with him a little. When he eagerly asked for more stories, she felt the rest of the guilt get completely wiped out, and told him everything. Every little thing.

Harry never judged her wrongly, he hadn't been disappointed once.

Okay, he _had_ been disappointed a few times, but it was more like... "I'm so disappointed you only slashed his tires and didn't scratch the paint," or, "six rolls? If you want to toilet paper a house, you need at least twelve..."

Those things, were the reason that she was so in love with him. Really, she had found very few faults with him yet, and all of those she completely loved. Like when he couldn't take a compliment, and he would get all shy... and how she loved giving him even _more_ compliments to watch him squirm because it was so cute...

"What is she doing?" she heard her mom ask.

"She's fawning over Harry. Don't worry, she does it a lot," Seth told her.

They were all staring at her, so she reddened a bit at being caught again. Really, she had to do something about that...

"It's completely adorable, isn't it?" Emily asked her mom in her cooing voice. Leah scowled when her mom agreed in that same voice.

"So why are you here?" Sue asked Emily. "Just visiting Leah?"

"Sort of," Emily replied and then turned even more giddy, "I'm here to help Leah get ready for her date!" She clapped her hands together as she finished.

Her mother gasped loudly.

"Harry broke up with his girlfriend? Why didn't you tell me?!" her mother exclaimed, like a gossipy teenage girl.

"I told you!" Seth whined. "I just told Sam that she had a date in front of you!"

"Yes, but I thought you were kidding! Especially based on Leah's crude joke afterward," her mother said with a disapproving look at her.

"It wasn't a joke," Leah mumbled.

"Now, tell me everything!" her mother said.

"What? No," Leah said disgustedly. "I'm not gossiping."

Her mother started to get an mutinous look on her face, so Emily derailed her. She was on okay cousin sometimes, Leah guessed. "I'll tell you! I was there!" and they brought their heads together in that all too familiar way that the bitchy prissy girls in her high school did whenever they went to talk shit about Leah behind her back.

Leah was okay with bitchy girls, she was one herself after all. She was even sort of okay with just prissy girls, some people liked that. It was the way they were both together, so that they tried to act badass like Leah, but at the same time acted like they were better than her. If she had only been a werewolf back then... she would have eaten five pounds of food every meal and then stretched showing off her stomach. That would have made them all so jealous that they would have campaigned against her.

And she would have eaten Twinkies in front of them and laughed.

She shook her head, maybe there was something wrong with her, she should be able to keep her concentration better than this. Although, after looking around, she could see _why_ she kept going off in her head. With two gossiping girls, her brother stuffing his face, and Sam... staring at Emily adoringly. Gross. Was she really like that? She'd have to stop if she was. Well, with all that, there really wasn't much in the conversation department.

Seth was still eating... but he'd have to do. There was nothing better around.

"I don't look like that, do I?" Leah asked her brother, pointing at Sam with her chin.

Seth looked at her pityingly. "You're worse."

Leah's mouth dropped open. "I am not!" she said, outraged at being worse than Sam.

Seth just dropped his mouth and made his eyes wide and dreamy and start mumbling "oh Harry... he's so perfect and oh my god he's so dreamy"

Her cheeks went red and she tried to fight the impulse to immediately deny it, because they both knew it was true. She _might_ have even said it just like that one day, to which she was genuinely ashamed of.

"And don't even make me mention what you were doing in the shower earlier..." he said, with a bit of blush to his cheeks as well.

This, at least, she could fight. "Don't even try that because we can definitely go tits for tats on that, and you'd come out much worse," she warned, a bit of danger on her tone.

"Yes," he smirked, "but every time I did it, it was to _hot girls_ because I'm a _teenage boy_ and I do it to _different girls_," he said smiling.

She couldn't even figure out how to start fighting that, so she started on the only one that she had an immediate response to. "Harry's hot!" she exclaimed, angry that anyone would say otherwise.

Seth smirked at her comeback, but didn't get to make fun of her for it.

"He really is, sweetie," her mother said, breaking away from her huddle with Emily for a second.

"Ugh, mom!" Leah said, disgusted that her mother would think about Harry that way.

She just laughed and got back into formation with Emily. Whatever.

She turned back to Seth who was still smirking victoriously. The first impulse would be to smack it off of him, but... she had to admit, he really did deserve that win. He riled her up, he had attacked her weak points, and he had gloated properly.

Just like the brother of Leah Clearwater should.

"I'm so proud of you," she said smiling at him happily.

His face was surprised for a second, but he beamed at her happily, much too delighted at getting a compliment from her. She may not have given him many... but the ones she did were heartfelt and indisputable. And that, to her, was more important than giving a ton of meaningless ones.

Not only that, but she had distracted him from making fun of her obsession with Harry. Which it wasn't. She really wasn't obsessed like the other wolves about their imprints. She _had _just been able to cunningly distract her brother for her own selfish purpose, not just dream about Harry.

Okay, so maybe it hadn't been on purpose, but the fact that she _recognized_ how cunning it was, meant that she was improving. A few weeks ago, Harry was able to use his cunning all over the place to get one over her, or trick her all the time. It was always harmless, and most of the time it ended up with her losing at something that she wanted to do for him, like cooking or something. So really, he used his extreme cunning to be even more perfect _for her_. And really, who does that, except for absolutely perfect, perfect...

"Leah!" Seth whined.

"Okay okay, I'm stopping. I swear," she said, blushing again. She really had to stop that. "Oi!" she yelled at Emily and her mom. She also shared a quick grin with Seth over the word. It really was an awesome word. "You guys done yet?"

"Yeah," Emily said and turned back to her mother. "I'll tell you the rest later, it was too adorable to rush anyways."

Her mother squealed and completely embarrassed her again.

"Okay, Leah. Let's go get you ready," Emily commanded her.

That's right, _commanded_. Because there really wasn't any other word for her giving out orders and pointing toward Leah's room like a war general or something.

"Err, is this really needed?" Leah asked, a bit intimidated despite herself.

"Yes, with how much you run as a wolf, you need some serious nail care, especially with your toes," Emily told her pointedly.

Leah looked down at them and grimaced. How had she not fixed this before? At least she usually wore socks around Harry... she should probably stop before Seth whined again.

"Fine, fine, let's go," Leah sighed.

"Leah," Emily crossed her arms and looked at Sam pointedly.

Leah gawked at her. There was no way she wanted her to apologize...

"If you want my help..." Emily said breezily.

Leah sputtered disbelievingly. She should just tell her to fuck off and ignore her... but she really did need help. If her toenails were really that bad, she should have fixed them ages ago, like right after she imprinted on Harry. Preferably a few seconds before.

She looked at the devil that was possessing her cousin, and then back at her toenails. Was that... yeah, that was tree sap under it.

Leah sighed deeply. Her cousin was such a blackmailing little shit.

"You're a blackmailing little shit," she informed her cousin. The point was conceded.

"Sam," she cleared her throat. She looked at him and saw his gloating expression. Well, that wouldn't do. "I'm sorry," she said clearly, "that you need your imprint to fight your battles for you, pussy," she said mumbled really fast and low. Too fast for humans to understand, and too low for them to hear.

Sam's face colored and got angry, while Seth snorted from his corner.

"Wow, she did it," Sue commented, astonished. Leah just smiled at her mom sweetly, as if there was no doubt that she would.

Her cousin sighed, most likely deducing exactly what happened, and grabbed Leah by the arm. They went up the stairs, to get her all beautiful, and probably do girly stuff. Leah grimaced.

She looked back at her brother for help as she was going up the stairs. She begged him for help with eyes. Flashing her a cheeky grin, he mouthed 'good luck'.

Leah was torn between being angry and proud again. Her brother was growing up into a man.

* * *

Harry was pacing. Like any other guy, he was nervous before his first date.

Logically, he knew that it would probably go perfect no matter what, and that Leah had imprinted on him so that there wasn't much he could do to bugger things up.

But he was Harry Potter after all. One had to take that into account.

'If something could go wrong, it eventually would,' was his motto after fourth year. So it was really no surprise that he was worried about something somehow going wrong. Maybe he would twist his ankle on a pothole, or maybe he would get called in by the ministry, or maybe there would be an elf uprising and he would have to help confiscate all kitchen knives. They were all equally as possible when it came to him.

That's another reason he hated calling it a date, big events seemed more likely to blow up around him.

And now he was debating over going to Ron and Hermione's for help. Usually, it would be a no-brainer and he would just floo over and get some advice like he used to... but this was a pretty volatile time. There were too many reasons for going and not going.

He had another brilliant idea. A list! He would have to thank Hermione for that, she ahd always told him that lists were 'extremely beneficiary.'

He decided on a pros and cons list, so he conjured writing materials and started writing.

* * *

Why I should go to Hermione's

A list by Harry James Potter

_Pros:_

_-**Could make date better for Leah**. Hermione will definitely tell me something I shouldn't do, which I would do._

_**-Hermione will get angry if I don't go there first**. She will._

_-**There would be food.** Food is always good..._

_-**Could get help on how to dress**. I'm not a girl, I just want to look good for Leah._

_Cons:_

_-**Hermione is pregnant**. Extremely volatile and unpredictable behavior. Trustworthiness of advice is questionable._

_-**Ron was still mad.** I'm not actually _sure_ that he is still mad... but yeah, Ron is definitely still mad. _

_-**Hermione will coo**. As a rule, avoid cooing and 'aw'ing._

* * *

Harry stared down at his list. It really _did_ feel like he accomplished something, Hermione was right. He should do it more often.

Grinning down at his list, he felt good enough that he would go to their house. It wasn't that it cleared his mind on if he should or not, but it made him feel nice and impulsive.

Which really wasn't that different than normal.

Still, he would probably do this again, it was fun. He went over to the fireplace and picked up the powder, throwing it into the fire without thinking any more about it.

He really should have.

If he had, he would have remembered that he had just broken up with his girlfriend who just happened to be _best friends_ with Hermione. So, of course, it came as a shock to him when he stepped out of the floo – okay fine, stumbled. But really, he was getting better – and saw Ginny there with sweat pants and a tub of ice cream on her lap. Hermione was next to her running a hand through Ginny's hair, and another over her pregnant stomach. Ron was watching the television, which he had fallen in love with once Hermione showed it to him. And now they were all staring at him.

Bugger.

"Err... Hi guys..." he said weakly. He had thought about backing up slowly and flooing away, but they put the television right next to the fireplace. Seriously though, Harry couldn't figure out why they would do this right next to the floo. If Ron's boss or something came by and saw them or something... it wasn't Harry's fault. It wasn't.

"Harry!" Hermione said happily and went over to hug him. She was the only one.

"Hi Hermione. How are you?" he asked warmly. No matter what, he would always be nice to Hermione. He still regretted when they shunned her for turning in his firebolt. Even if she hadn't done it the best way, she was looking out for him, like always. "How's the little tyke coming?" he asked, rubbing her stomach and hoping to feel a kick.

She beamed at him. "He's a little brat," she told him cheerfully. "He was just-"

"_Potter_." Ron growled at him. That's right, he growled. Harry was a little shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"Ron..." Hermione said disapprovingly.

"No, Hermione. He broke my sister's heart and now he comes to gloat!" he scoffed. "What are you here for?"

Harry sighed. "I'm not here to fight Ron," he put up his hands to show no ill will, "I just wanted to talk to Hermione for a second. I didn't realize Ginny would be here," he winced at how that sounded, but at least Ron seemed to cool down just a touch.

He saw and opening and decided that it would be a good time to try to make up with his friend. He should have known Ron would need more time. "But Ron," he said, taking a step toward him, "we can't-"

"No!" Ron exclaimed suddenly, taking a couple of steps away from Harry. He even went even as far as to turn to the side away from him, bringing one hand up a little as if to shield himself and another to his mouth, to show he wasn't talking.

Harry raised his eyebrows at him. That was dramatic.

A muffled noise from Hermione caught his small attention. She had one hand cupped over her mouth and the other over her stomach, with her fist clenched. Everyone was instantly on alert. "Are you alright? Hermione?" Ron asked frantically.

Hermione took her hand away from her mouth and Harry breathed out in relief. She was laughing. Through her snorting she spoke, "Ron... did you just _flounce_ away from Harry?"

Harry looked between a shaking Hermione and a sputtering Ron. "I did not!" Ron finally denied.

"You did! You _did_!" Hermione said back, still laughing. "You _flounced!_.

Harry went and sat next to Ginny. "Can I get some?" he whispered, pointing to the ice cream and grinning between Ginny and Ron and Hermione. Ginny finally cracked a smile and nodded, visibly cheering up.

As she should, Harry thought. This really was entertainment at its finest. Only Leah was funnier.

He conjured a spoon and scooped from the giant tub, sitting amiably with his ex girlfriend. Sometimes life _could_ work out well. It also gave him a bit of a nostalgic feeling, because this was exactly what he would do when Hermione and Ron fought, back in Hogwarts. Well, when he wasn't brooding. But now he was happy and everything was a thousand times funnier. It was probably because of Leah, life just had more meaning after she imprinted on him. He shook his head, he'd been day dreaming of her like that more and more often.

He brought the scoop to his mouth. Treacle Tart! When did they come up with this flavor? Ron's shout brought him out of it again. He really needed to do something about his attention span.

"I would never _flounce!_" he said outraged.

"You _did!_" Hermione said, no longer laughing anymore, and using the same tone she used when they argued. "Look, this is exactly what you did!" and she repeated the same motion that he did, but she added a feminine little 'Oh!' and covered her mouth with spread fingers.

Harry shot ice cream out of his nose, while Ginny giggled next to him. He quickly shushed her, not wanting to distract Ron and Hermione. They had never been distracted before, but he didn't want to take a chance.

Ron sputtered back and gaped like a fish. "I did not!" was his brilliant response. Harry chuckled with Ginny and brought another scoop to his mouth.

"Really, Ron?" Hermione leveled him with an unimpressed stare. "You didn't do exactly this?" she repeated the same motion. Harry bit on his fist to not laugh.

"You shouldn't be doing that! You're pregnant Hermione!" Ron exclaimed back.

"Don't use that excuse Ronald Billius Weasley!" Hermione shrieked. Everyone covered their ears with their hands. "You always say that now!"

Harry could see Ron turn red and was visibly struggling not to retort and upset his very pregnant wife. He failed of course. "When do I say that?" he finally shouted back.

Before she had gotten pregnant, Hermione had been trying to teach Ron restraint when he got angry. The thing with Ron was, that when he held it in, it would come out even stronger later. It was probably a stage, until he got past a point where he could start getting rid of the anger, but Hermione had gotten pregnant and decided that was more important.

So what they had now, was a more volatile Ron that would take a few more second before exploding.

"When the _bloody hell_ do I do that Hermione? _When_?" he yelled loudly.

Hermione was not amused.

"How about every night when I want to have sex and you're all we can't do that position because of the baby and -"

Harry started casting a silencing charm as soon as he heard sex. Hermione talks _really_ fast.

He also saw Ginny next to him fumbling with her wand, getting ready to do the same before he did it. She looked at him gratefully. "Thanks, I did _not_ wanna hear that."

"Me neither," he chuckled.

Ron and Hermione were still yelling at each other, making outrageous hand motions, so he turned away from them and looked at Ginny. She was looking at him with big wide eyes, that were slightly hurt.

Err... maybe he should drop the silencing charm...

"So how are you?" he asked politely.

She looked down at her sweatpants and ice cream in her lap and then back at him.

Maybe he should just pretend the spell failed...

"I'm fine. That," she said, pointing at Ron and Hermione, who were still yelling and now getting a book respectively, "made me feel a lot better," she smiled at him.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "They're always good for a laugh."

Silence fell between them. It wasn't as awkward as before, but it wasn't completely comfortable. Harry glanced at her. She was biting her lip, fighting with herself on something. Harry could guess what she was torn about. _Please don't ask, please don't ask_.

"So... how's it going with the wh-" she coughed, "Leah?"

Maybe he should just drop the silencing charm and run... not even pretend it was an accident...

"Err... you know... we fought?" he asked hopefully. Hoping she would just agree with the obvious lie.

"Really?" she asked, perking up a little.

"Not really," he winced. He didn't really expect her to believe it.

"Oh," she said, and starting playing with her spoon. "Did you... did you ask her out already?"

"Mhm," he said, uncomfortable beyond belief.

"Oh," she repeated, still looking down with an expressionless face. "Is that why you're here?"

"Mhm," was pretty much all he could say.

She just nodded, and the silence was stifling in its uneasiness.

"I'm sorry," he winced. She nodded back. "So err.. found a boyfriend yet?" he asked hopefully.

She looked at her sweatpants and ice cream and back at him again. "Of course, Harry. I'm getting ready for a date later," she said sarcastically.

He didn't think it'd be helpful if he said 'me too.' He had to bite his lip to stop himself from saying it. He was way too used to being cheeky around Leah. She never ever got mad at him for it, or took it the wrong way. Sometimes, he used to do that, or make a sarcastic comment, and Ron would blow up, or Hermione would take it too seriously. That used to make him a bit scared to do it again, because he still had slight self esteem problems left over from the Dursleys.

But with Leah... she gave him an amazing amount of confidence. Not only did she always take it all graciously, but she would appreciate all his jokes, no matter how bad they were. That gave him confidence to be cheeky with not only her, but with other people. Some even commented about how much happier he was... and it was true. He'd been just so much more _content_ all the time. Even without Leah around, but when she was around, it was even more...

"Are you alright?" Ginny peered at him.

"Yeah," he wiped his mouth to check if he drooled and blushed when he caught the slightest bit there. "I'm alright."

"What was that?" he heard Hermione ask. He probably unintentionally brought down the silencing charm while he was day dreaming. He blushed a little more.

"Nothing, nothing," he quickly said.

They both looked at him weirdly. He flushed more.

"Where's Ron?" he asked Hermione, hoping for a respite from their inquisitive stares.

"Flouncing to the kitchen, probably," Hermione snorted.

Harry laughed again, remembering what Ron did. It really _was_ hilarious.

"So why are you here, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Err," he glanced at Ginny warily. "Neededhelpwithadate," he mumbled quickly.

"Oh that's wonderful!" Hermione cried, too used to Ron's talking while eating to not have caught what he said.

Ginny just stared at him, wholly unimpressed. She threw her hands up, "it's like no one is sympathetic to me at all," she said exasperatedly, "seriously, Hermione didn't let me insult Leah _once_. What kind of best friend is that?" she asked Harry rhetorically.

"A good one?" he asked innocently.

Ginny just glowered at him.

"Leah is a wonderful girl, Ginny, no one is at fault here," Hermione recited.

"Yeah, yeah, I just..." Ginny sighed, "okay, fine..." she took a deep breath, as if to gain strength from it. "I guess I'm... I guess I'm just... I'm jeal-"

"Ooh!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed. "We should go and have some girl time with Leah!" Hermione told Ginny.

Harry bit his lip so as not to laugh. Ginny was looking at her like she was crazy. The pregnancy was making his best friend fucking hilarious.

"Hermione... you're a horrible friend. I was just trying to pour my heart out there," Ginny said sadly.

"You're jealous," Hermione reasoned, "it's the obvious response. Really, you and Ron are so _dramatic_ lately," Hermione shook her head.

Harry put his whole fist in his mouth.

"Well? Do you want to go see Leah?" Hermione asked Ginny.

"Why in the hell would I want to go help someone get ready for a date with Harry?" Ginny asked shrilly. "Your pregnancy must really be-"

"Ginevra Weasley," Hermione shrieked.

Harry just stayed out of it and watched the entertainment. He was getting really good at turning negatives into positives. Who would have thought watching your ex girlfriend and a pregnant girl would be so _bloody funny_.

The kitchen door opened, and Ron came in, holding another bowl of chips. Harry grinned at him, but Ron was apparently still mad, so Harry just sighed and turned back to watching Hermione get her way like always.

_Whoosh_.

The fireplace lit up. He glanced back at all the Weasleys – Hermione was one now as well, that was hard to get used to – but they all looked just as bewildered as him. Maybe it was just George...

It wasn't.

"Potter," the male that came out said cooly. "Well, this is better than I thought it would be, I was expecting something a lot poorer..." he said, looking around.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?!" Ron shouted disbelievingly.

"Hm?" he said distractedly, poking at Hermione's laptop, not knowing what it was. "Oh, I was bored," Malfoy shrugged.

Everyone just watched him strangely.

"Alright, that's it," Ginny threw up her hands. "Let's just go, Hermione, whatever you want."

"Woo!" Hermione cheered and clapped her hands. "Come on," she said and pulled Ginny to the fireplace. But not before giving a bemused Malfoy a hug for unknowingly helping her out.

They flooed out to his house.

Leaving Harry with Ron, who was mad at him, and Malfoy, who was just a git.

_Great_.

Harry looked at Ron who was fuming, and Malfoy who was eating ice cream elegantly – even he had to admit the Malfoys had excellent etiquette when they weren't riled up – but he could see Malfoy secretly smirking at Ron every few seconds. He did the only thing that would dissolve all the tension.

"Let's go fly," he told them. They both smiled at Harry without malice for the first time that day. Ron got up and went outside to the broom shed, and Malfoy followed. Harry thought that everyone should just live in the air. There would be a lot less drama in the world.

That's probably why birds were always singing! Harry grinned, satisfied with his conclusion, when he caught a bit of Ron and Malfoy's bickering, "It's not that _Weasel_, I just can't find my massaging neck pillow!"

Harry blinked and went outside to join them, not even bothering with what that was about.

* * *

"Hello!" Hermione said brightly from Ginny's side.

Ginny looked around her. They were at a reservation. She thought it'd look a lot more... poor? Not that she was one to talk... but this was probably a little better than the Burrow.

A middle age woman opened the door. She was probably Leah's mom, Ginny could see the resemblance a little.

Of course, Leah was a lot better looking thanks to the shape-shifter thing... it wasn't fair. Ginny wanted to call her an ugly Harpy, but there really was no way to call Leah ugly.

Just a Harpy it is.

Just like the stupid Veelas, stealing all the attention from all the boys and her brother Bill... but she was supposed to be nicer now.

The lady was looking at her a little guardedly, and then at Hermione. However, once she saw Hermione's pregnant belly, she fully stepped out and smiled at them both. "Hello? Everything alright?" she asked.

Really, it was hard not to trust a pregnant lady. If Ginny was to choose the least likely murder suspect... it'd be the pregnant lady. Except how crazy they get.

Death Eaters should have pretended to be pregnant. They would have been let in at once. Except for Moody. He'd probably still distrust Pregnant ladies.

"Hullo!" Hermione said brightly, and the lady seemed to get some recognition in her face. Then she got alarmed and stared at her belly, but Ginny had no idea why. "Oh, no," Hermione said, "I'm Harry's best friend, I'm not his crazy pregnant ex-girlfriend," Hermione dissolved into giggles. "Oh, that'd be hilarious!" she exclaimed.

The lady seemed obviously relieved. She wasn't even fazed at the craziness that Hermione was exuding. Probably pregnant ladies sticking together or some crap.

"Can you tell Leah that Hermione here really wanted to see her and help her plan with her date or something," Ginny said to the lady.

"Oh! Yes, of course," she said and ran back inside. She opened the door a second later. "I'm Sue, by the way. Come in, come in!"

She brought them inside and told them to go upstairs, that they'd probably hear Leah cursing. Hermione laughed and agreed.

They went to the door that had music blasting out of it. It wasn't Ginny's taste. Way too heavy. The door was annoying to her too, it had the cliche little 'No Boys Allowed' sign up. Ginny sniffed.

"Oh, that's cute!" Hermione said, pointing out at the very sign. Ginny just made throwing up motions, getting a scolding look from Hermione.

_Knock knock_.

The music turned off quickly and they heard pounding feet. The door opened and another girl that Ginny didn't know showed up.

Great, now more people could see how humiliated Ginny was. This was probably karma for what she did that night they met.

"Hi!" the girl said with a very surprised look. She had a very kind face, like she couldn't think badly of anyone. Ginny found herself liking her instantly. "Err, Leah's inside... I'm assuming that's who you came to see? I'm Emily by the way," she opened the door fully.

Leah was sitting on the floor with some stuff on her toes. It looked like she was getting a pedicure. Ginny wasn't good at those charms, and beauty charms were probably the only thing that Hermione didn't know, so they weren't going to be much help there. Ginny couldn't help but take a little vindication out of that.

"Hermione. Very nice to meet you," Hermione smiled at Emily. Ginny didn't offer her name. "I wanted to see if Leah wanted any help preparing or something? Oh good, you're doing her feet!" she went inside.

"Hermione!" she heard the whore yell out happily. Ginny smirked inwardly at how not happy she would be at seeing Ginny.

She walked inside as well. Leah's eyes widened and she froze. She looked at Hermione worriedly, but Hermione just smiled brightly.

"Are- are you guys here to kill me?" Leah asked fearfully.

Ginny couldn't help it. That was pretty funny. She snorted. "No, just preggo over there dragged me with," Ginny said. "It was this or Harry. He showed up at their house."

Leah gulped, but she relaxed a bit.

"What's going on?" Emily asked worriedly.

"Erm. That's Harry's... erm..." the whore fidgeted.

Ginny sighed. She lifted an arm and pointed down at herself. "Humiliated ex-girlfriend here. Preggo over there dragged me here."

Emily widened her eyes comically and glanced between all three of them. "Oh," was all she came up with. "Err, why?" she turned to Hermione.

Hermione just smiled back. "Why not?"

Everyone looked at her and blinked. Never get pregnant, Ginny told herself.

"I thought Harry said that she was the smartest girl in your year?" Leah asked Ginny, clearly forgetting the boundaries. But once again, Ginny couldn't help the snort that came out.

"She is, it's the pregnancy. She's usually so rational..." Ginny shook her head.

"It's the magic," Hermione said distractedly, rubbing her belly. "All my magic is going to the baby..." she smiled beautifully.

Emily looked confused. "I thought you didn't need magic to think rationally..." she said hesitantly.

"Most don't, but I do," Hermione lectured. She seemed to get a bit better when she lectured. It must be too instinctual by now to get crazy about lecturing. "It's just like how Harry is faster than everyone," she said unhelpfully. She pretty much just confused everyone.

Except for Leah apparently. "You mean his magic is making him inhumanly fast and strong?" Leah sat up and looked at her eagerly. Maybe a bit desperately.

"Hm?" Hermione asked, "Oh, of course," she said, looking surprised. "Did you think everyone was that fast?"

"I thought all _wizards_ were that fast..." Leah said slowly.

"Goodness, no," Hermione laughed. "We're only a little faster than humans. Harry is a freak of nature,"

"He's not a freak," Leah frowned at Hermione. Ginny raised her eyebrows. Very protective. Was that the imprint affecting her?

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Hermione scolded Leah. "It's a phenomenon that happens to all magicals. When they have a desperate need of something, their magic works to help them. Have you never heard of this before, Ginny?" she asked her.

"No, Harry never mentioned this," Ginny said shaking her head, and feeling a little dejected about it. Did they have that bad of a relationship that he didn't talk to her about stuff before?

"Well, we only found out a few months ago. Or more like, we proved the theory a few months ago," Hermione rambled a bit. Ginny was still a bit morose about it though. "We found out," she went up a little more on her chair, getting into her lecture, "that when a person is in immediate danger, magic will sometimes work in bursts to help them. If they're injured, the magic works to heal them, if they're crushed under a big weight, magic will make them stronger temporarily," Hermione lectured with the passion that she always has for studies. "It's rare, and the more magic a person had, the more likely it is to happen. It's happened to Harry a lot,"

That was accidental magic to Ginny... and not really what they were talking about. Okay, so the pregnancy must be affecting even her lecturing.

"But Harry is constantly able to keep up with me. Or close at least," she allowed, "not when I'm in wolf form, but he can always _see_ me. Most humans only see a blur when they watch me run as a wolf."

"It's true, I can't see it at all," Emily nodded.

Hermione smiled brightly. "Yes, but that brings us to the _next_ phenomenon. The one that is much more common, but much less visible," she said, capturing all of their attention. "if you're in immediate danger of something, you might get those accidental bursts of magic... but if you're in _constant_ need of something... your magic starts to work to permanently help you,"

"And the stronger your magic is, the more pronounced it'll be!" Leah finished for her excitedly. "And Harry has like the strongest magic ever," she said dreamily.

Ginny scowled.

"Exactly!" Hermione praised. She really was an excellent teacher. "So that's why Harry is so physically... enhanced, I guess," Hermione said, blushing just the tiniest bit.

"He really is amazing," Leah sighed.

Ginny watched her disgustedly. How could Harry enjoy being around that? That was like ten times worse than all the fan girls he hates...

"She's toning it down right now," Emily whispered to her.

"_Really?_" Ginny asked astonished.

Emily smiled at her, looking very amused at her friend. "Yup, it's the imprinting. Did they describe it to you?"

"Yeah, they said that they're soul mates and that's the only person they can be with," Ginny managed not to roll her eyes through sheer force of will.

Emily sighed a little. "It's a little more complicated than that," she shook her head. "From what all of them tell me, it's like their imprint is their whole universe. The only important thing to them anymore," she looked at Leah pointedly. "They can't help if that's all they think about sometimes."

"Yeah, but isn't it like... creepy for the imprints sometimes?" Ginny said, cringing at the thought of so much attention. That's why she had broken up with Dean. Way too clingy.

"Not really..." Emily laughed. "Maybe there are times where you feel a bit stifled, but they can tell easily because they watch you so much," Ginny could tell that someone imprinted on her by how much love she had in her voice when she spoke, "so if they can tell you want space, they'll give you space. No matter how much they want to smother you. They're all extremely selfless," she shook her head, with a loving look on her face. "When they're like that, you pretty much never want them to leave anyways."

In a way, it did sound perfect to Ginny. But still, it seemed like Ginny would get tired of that. "I don't know..." Ginny said, unconvinced.

"Well," Emily said pensively, "I think that might matter too," she said and looked at Ginny. "I don't think wolves imprint on people who wouldn't want something like this," she shrugged.

"But Harry didn't use to want something like that..." she said a bit bitterly. "He used to hate fan girls and people fawning over him."

"True, he does seem to hate too much attention," Emily conceded and Ginny smiled victoriously, "but did he ever hate too much attention from you when you were dating?" she asked pointedly.

"Err... no not really. He wanted more..." she shifted guiltily.

"I've also heard him say that he hates fans because they demand and expect from him a lot," Emily reminded her, "Leah never expects anything."

Ginny scowled. She got it. Leah was better than her, whatever.

"It's not a bad thing, Ginny," Hermione said from her other side, making her jump and curse, which then made Leah jump and curse.

"Make some noise or something, Hermione! Melin..." she grumbled.

Emily just giggled.

"Err, what are we doing now?" Leah asked, and then immediately blushed when everyone turned to look at her.

"Were you really day dreaming that whole time?" Emily asked her incredulously.

"No, I was... you know... listening," Leah nodded, obviously lying. Merlin, if the girl really did think about Harry that much then maybe she did deserve him more. Emily raised an eyebrow. "I was! You were talking about how Harry had magic running through him making him stronger, and faster, and hotter," she said, trying to sound authoritative.

Ginny peered at her curiously. Did she really think like that all the time?

"We stopped talking about that like... half an hour ago, Leah," Emily told her patiently. This must happen a lot. "And we never said hotter."

Leah's eyes boggled. "_Really_?" Emily just shook her head and turned back to Ginny. "Oh no!" Leah exclaimed suddenly.

Hermione looked at her appraisingly. "Did you just get it?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Leah looked devastated. "Harry's magic made him that fast and stuff... which means that he was in desperate need of it for that long!" she cried out, as if she was in pain herself.

Although it really did sound bad... Hm...

"Yeah," Hermione said sadly.

"He makes it seem like it wasn't that bad..." Leah despaired. She _despaired_. That was the only word for it.

Ginny had never despaired like _that_, and she had seen Harry being carried and declared dead. Leah would probably pull a Romeo and Juliet and kill herself right there.

Merlin, Ginny pretty much wanted the girl to have Harry, if she stopped looking that sad.

"All the things that he can do too!" Leah wailed. "He heals faster than most humans... he must have gotten hurt all the time! And he can see better..." she trailed off, probably thinking about how that one worked. Ginny couldn't figure it out.

"Had to dodge a lot of stuff," Hermione nodded with a sad face.

"Oh god..." she started almost hyperventilating. Ginny backed away a little. That was some intense shit. "And the hearing and the speed and..." she started almost crying.

Emily widened her eyes widely as well. Apparently that wasn't a normal reaction.

"Leah, he's fine... you just saw him a couple of hours ago..." she tried soothing her. It wasn't really working. Leah started shaking, and not in a crying way. More in a about-to-kill-someone kind of way. Emily backed away quickly and pulled the other girls with her, pregnant girl first.

"We should back away, just in case she phases."

"Leah," Hermione tried, "Harry's fine, you need to have a date with him later, remember?"

Ginny brought her wand out, in case she needed to put a shield up.

Leah nodded her head a little and seemed to relax, but she was still not looking at anyone. She was still sitting on the floor, with her knees up, as if shielding herself.

"Maybe we should get Sam," Emily said worriedly.

"Harry! We need to show her Harry!" Hermione said immediately. "Ginny, can you go get him?"

Ginny nodded and apparated to his house... just in time to see him running out of his house, headed for the outside of the wards. He saw her and changed his course toward her.

He was running much faster than she'd ever seen anyone run. That was probably when Hermione was talking about.

"Where is Leah?" he shouted at her immediately, without wasting time.

"Her room," Ginny squeaked, wide eyed.

Harry didn't even pause. With a twist of his torso, he apparated while running, not even breaking his stride.

Ginny just stared at the empty spot where he left. She was too shocked to even feel jealous right now. Things like that always happened around Harry anyways - she'd gotten used to them. He would always get into that mode where he would only speak and move when strictly needed, and he would get that same determined face that she always admired.

What didn't always happen, was the desperation on his face. It mirrored Leah's exactly.

That... that had been _intense_.

Maybe Ginny would be okay with them dating, because she didn't think she'd ever want a connection _that_ deep. That was too much for her. Ginny took a few deep breaths and apparated back to Leah's house.

* * *

Leah was having a panic attack. A real panic attack. She just couldn't stop thinking about it. Her Harry. Her Harry had gone through something _that _horrible.

Pictures kept popping up in her head. Different images with him getting hurt and nobody helping him at all.

She saw Harry in the cupboard that he told her, alone and crying. He said that they would ground him, but would let him out for the bathroom. Was he lying? Was he forced to pee on himself and then have to sleep on an mattress that smelled like... Leah wanted to throw up. In a place that small too... it was too much for her.

What about when he was actually hurt? Did they throw him in there with broken bones and just left him there crying? What about water, food? Just... she couldn't think.

Her hands clenched, and she started shaking. She wanted to find those _monsters_. She wanted to rip their eyes out.

No, their eyes would be last. She wanted them to _watch_.

She would force them to live the same things that they forced Harry to do. But she wouldn't be merciful, she would tear them to pieces and she would _fucking kill them all_.

_Harry wouldn't want you to kill anyone_. She tried to believe that. Well, she _did_ believe that. But maybe he would forgive her. Either way, she couldn't let people like _that_ live. They'd hurt her Harry.

He could have died.

She grabbed her hair and tried to rip it out. It was too damn short. Maybe she would take the Dursleys and -

"Leah?"

Her eyes snapped up. Harry was there.

She stared at him desperately, taking him in. He was fine. Everything would be fine, no one would hurt him with her around. The Dursleys were in the past and they wouldn't even speak to him anymore.

Having him there helped her think clearly, but she needed more, she needed physical contact.

Harry walked over to her and knelt, cocooning her in his arms, anticipating her needs just as well as she did his.

She sighed and felt all her anger leave her. Putting her head in his neck, she breathed in deeply, feeling reassured again, not wanting to kill anyone anymore. Okay, she did, but it was only wishful thinking, not a need anymore. "Thank you," she said, more grateful than she could put into words.

"Whenever you need me," he answered, stroking her hair and lightly scratching at her scalp. She closed her eyes, the feelings almost making her sleepy.

"I'll _always_ need you," Leah told him a little desperately, thinking about what could have happened for a second again.

"And I'll always be here," he replied immediately. "What happened?"

"Dursleys," Leah shrugged. She felt Harry sigh against her, sounding relieved. "I want to kill them," she said vehemently.

"Leah..." he sighed. She looked at him apologetically. It wasn't her intention to annoy him about this. But it was kind of a sensitive thing. If he didn't want to talk about it it was fine. "Thank you," he said emphatically. Leah raised her eyebrows at him. "For caring about me so much," he said, kissing her temple softly. Her eyes closed again. "But the Dursleys never abused me, so if that's what you're thinking-"

Her eyes snapped open. "But Harry! Hermione just told me why you're so fast," her explanation was just pouring out of her. "The only way that would have worked was if you had to dodge stuff all the time and gotten hurt a lot-"

"There were a few school bullies," Harry admitted, "that's it though," he said, trying to reassure her. "I was just a weird kid that got beat up a lot. By _other kids_. Not by my family. They didn't abuse me at all," she wanted to believe him. She did... "The only time I've ever broken anything at the Dursleys was the one time I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. That's it," he told her, caressing her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered close. "Really?" she asked him, feeling some of the panic leave her. She clutched onto the front of her shirt anyways, to center herself.

"Promise. I don't lie to you, _ever_," he promised her, looking into her eyes intensely.

Leah laughed a weak little laugh. "Ever?"

"Except for like jokes and little pranks, I haven't lied to you since you told me you imprinted," he said with a solemn expression.

"That's... you're just perfect, you know." She felt better. Harry seemed to think so as well, because he let go of her hair. She really wished he didn't. The comfort felt so nice, and she was still coming down a little from her panic.

She felt him sitting next to her, a little bit away from her. Much too far away for her liking. But then he grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulled her down...

And put her head on his lap, looking up at him.

God, how she loved that man. Especially when he kept running his fingers though her hair like that all the time, and massaging her head so perfectly. She moaned loudly.

Harry chuckled a bit, but didn't stop his stroking. She didn't mind being laughed at if he kept that up.

"Sorry about all that..." Leah said after another few minutes. It was starting to hit her just how much of a scene she made. He probably thought that she was so _needy_. She guessed she was, a bit. But it was him that was supposed to be needy and she was the was supposed to be the provider and the strong wolf.

"No problem at all," he said breezily, but the hand that wasn't on her head moved to her ear and started rubbing at that too.

Leah groaned in pleasure. Really, she was quite fine with being the needy one. It was _brilliant_ being the needy one.

"I should probably go back and make sure Malfoy and Ron don't kill each other," Harry sighed, sounding just as reluctant to move as she felt.

"Mm. Ten more minutes, mom," she said, turning her head away from him and getting a laugh out of him.

"The other girls are probably worried about you as well," he reminded her.

She groaned loudly. "Oh god," she thought back to what she did, "I'm such a _girl_. Really, freaking out like that... ugh."

"I'm quite fond of you being a girl, you know," he smirked at her. "I don't fancy you stopping that."

She smiled at him gratefully. It didn't ease the humiliation much, but her imprint always knew how to make her feel better. She quite liked being the needy one sometimes.

* * *

Ginny watched Harry and Leah from behind the door. The whore's lap was on his head and they were talking softly to each other. Every once in a while she would groan and he would laugh.

They looked way too perfect.

Ginny scowled petulantly again. Then she shot a glare at Hermione who was staring at her smugly. Really, she had just gotten dumped _that morning_, one would think that people would have a bit more sympathy or something.

It didn't matter that she probably brought this upon herself like Hermione said. She still deserved pity.

"Aren't they just adorable?" Hermione cooed, and Emily of course agreed.

"You're the worst mate ever," Ginny informed her.

Hermione scoffed. "This will be good for you. You need to get over it," she told her insensitively.

"He just broke up with me this morning! Seriously..." Ginny said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, but you've been stringing him along for years," Hermione said pointedly, and a little angrily. "Look at him, has he ever seemed happier to you?" she asked. Ginny was about to answer that she didn't need to rub it in, but Hermione was relentless. "No, he's never been that happy. And he _deserves_ it. More than anyone," she glared at Ginny.

Well, that put her in her place a little. She did feel bad now, Harry's life had been a string of sacrifices... she should be happy for him. That was fine, she could do that.

She just didn't want to be happy for the whore.

"Fine, I can _maybe_ be happy for _him_, as long as he's there and Leah isn't gloating," she sniffed.

"Leah would never gloat," Emily said in a serious voice.

"It's good that you can at least be happy for him," Hermione said in her lecturing voice.

"It's a step toward complete healing," Emily nodded in an eerily similar voice.

"You already went through grief, then anger," Hermione said.

"Next is acceptance," Emily nodded.

Ginny blinked and stared at them both. She could have sworn they were Fred and George for a second. Except for like being bizarro know-it-all lecturing twins instead of pranksters. Merlin, that was a scary thought.

Hermione and Emily beamed at each other.

"Hey guys," Harry said, coming out of Leah's room. He really did look much happier than she'd ever seen him. His eyes were brighter, his stance was straighter, and he smiled a lot more.

Ginny felt herself very reluctantly feeling happy for him.

"How is she?" Emily asked him immmediately.

"She was fine," Harry said laughing. He was trying to save face for the girl probably, because that was most definitely not fine. "Just a little misunderstanding. That's all," he said, completely nonchalantly.

Hermione huffed, "You're horrible at explaining."

Harry just smiled and nodded. "Well, I left Ron and Malfoy at your house..." Hermione's eyes widened, "Exactly. I reckon I should go and counter the hexes," he hugged all three of them – Ginny a little awkwardly – and swiftly left.

Ginny sighed and went back into Leah's room.

Hermione and Emily were cooing at Leah, who was reddening.

It must have been at least a few minutes that Ginny was standing outside, because they were already deep in conversation.

"But what I don't get," Leah was saying, "is what you meant by _you_ need magic to think rationally."

Hermione was rubbing her stomach, with a crazy smile that said all rationality _did_ leave her. Ginny would have to make sure to watch the kid - just in case.

"Well, I did some studies," of course, Ginny thought, "and I have a lot of magic running through my brain, just like Harry does throughout his body," Ginny raised an eyebrow. So she _did_ have a superbrain! Ron had always argued that she must have some super powers there, but Ginny had just rolled her eyes. It was weird seeing Ron being right.

"So it makes you super smart?" Leah asked her with widened eyes.

"Not necessarily," Hermione admitted ruefully, "it just makes my thought process be a lot faster than most people. It doesn't necessarily mean that I'll come to the right conclusion, but when I do an exhaustive search through all possibilities, I can usually come up with the right answer. It would just take most people too long to think like that all the time."

"So," Leah started out slowly, as if forming her sentence still, "when you lose the magic... you can't use your normal thought process?"

"Exactly!" Hermione said, "it's not like I'm invalid when my baby takes all my magic, but my inhibitions are definitely lowered," Hermione explained. "I've just never needed to use any intuitive kind of thinking as a kid. I didn't have friends until Harry and he's the most intuitive person I've ever met, so all impulsive thinking was usually up to him," she smiled fondly.

"I've noticed that," Leah nodded. "Sometimes, he comes up with stuff extremely fast, like his hunches are almost always right," she shifted forward excitedly. "Like when you thought of a theory when you came over, Harry thought up that same thing almost instantly, but without going through all the other possibilities..." Leah sighed, "my imprint is perfect."

Emily snapped her fingers in front of Leah's face and she blinked in surprise, then blushed again. Ginny snickered, the girl was hopeless. It was hard to hate her when she did that.

Hermione looked at her watch. It was time to go, she told everyone.

Leah's relief was visible to everyone, and they giggled at her.

"Hey! You guys didn't help me at all!" They heard Leah exclaim as they were leaving.

Ginny looked back and realized she was right. She almost smirked, but felt just a tiny bit bad about how desperate the girl looked.

"We just wanted a girl session, really," Emily told her patiently, "that's how these things usually go, Leah."

"Really?" the girl asked confused.

"Yeah..." Ginny said, "haven't you done this before?"

"No... not really," Leah fidgeted. Ginny sighed. It was _really_ hard to stay bitter at the girl.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, and waved her wand. Instantly, Leah's feet cleaned and her toe nails got clipped and shaped nicely. Leah's face beamed.

"Thank you!" she said, happily staring at her feet.

"I didn't know you knew beauty charms, Hermione," Ginny raised an eyebrow.

Hermione shrugged. "I felt fat and ugly," she said, rubbing her stomach.

Ginny nodded in understanding. In a rare impulse of girlishness, she commented on the charm and how well it worked. She walked with Hermione and Emily talking about girly things happily.

She guessed she could get over Harry and be happy for him, he deserved it. Even if they were going on a stupid date a few hours after he broke up with her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"So, you get to make a choice right now," Harry informed her, his face set into a very serious expression.

"Oh?" she raised an interested eyebrow. It was a little unusual for a date to start out like that, but that could potentially make it better.

They walked out of her house to leave, Harry holding the door open for her like a good date.

"Mhm," Harry hummed affirmatively. "The place is far, but won't take us long to get there," he said mysteriously.

"What is this a riddle?" Leah asked, not knowing if she should be amused or angry.

Harry laughed at her. "No." Then he shook his head, "if you'd just not interrupt all the time, then you might-"

"Yeah, yeah," she said impatiently, not wanting to hear a whole speech about how she interrupted everyone all the time, "I know, don't interrupt. I won't." He arched an eyebrow. Oh. She'd just interrupted him saying she wouldn't interrupt. "Fine, I'll keep interrupting," she muttered, and crossed her arms petulantly.

He just smiled at her in response. "So the choice is on how you want to get there-"

"Doesn't matter to me," she said immediately.

Harry raised a pointed eyebrow again. She just huffed and stayed quiet, but not without difficulty.

"We can either go there the slow and romantic way..." he trailed off with suspense. After the suitable two seconds, he suddenly grinned at her, "or the fast and exciting and maybe even slightly scary." His mood was definitely infectious.

Leah rolled her eyes. "It is our _date_ Harry, what do you _think_ we should do?" she asked him condescendingly, as if she was asking a very obvious rhetorical question.

Harry grinned at her happily. "So fast and scary?"

"Of _course _fast and scary!" she threw her hands up in exasperation, but her smile showed how happy she was. Even if the whole thing had been very corny.

Giddily, she watched him pull out the broom that he'd said he preferred. The very fast and very expensive one. It was immediately obvious what they were doing.

Her first reaction was to check her clothes to make sure they wouldn't hinder her. Thankfully, she had decided that Harry liked her for a reason, one that was most definitely not very girly dresses.

So she wore jeans and the first top that her hand grabbed when she stuck it in her closet. Okay, fine, so she freaked out about it, and that's how she ended up deciding, by the good old-fashioned close your eyes and grab the first thing before you change your mind. Otherwise she would have still been going through all of her old shabby clothes. So she was a girl sometimes, it wasn't her fault. At least she hadn't worn a skirt(she couldn't find one). She'd never liked them until she started dreaming of all the kinky things she could do with them once Harry would finally ravish her.

The point was that nothing was going to be a problem on a broom.

She had been promised a broom ride weeks ago, but it just never seemed to happen. They'd either end up talking until patrol time, or Leah would get hungry and Harry would cook something for her – and really who was she to say no to her imprint _cooking_ for her. That was hot. Mostly though, she'd put too much effort into how to end up with her head on her shoulder, or leaning on him, or just any kind of contact; so after all that effort to get some friendly cuddles, she wouldn't want to get up and lose the contact they were having.

Cuddles were very important to Leah.

Later, she'd regret not pushing for that broom ride more.

"Hop on," Harry told her, patting the back of the broom lightly.

Shaking off the fear that the flimsy looking broom would break under her weight(werewolves were naturally heavier), she threw a leg over the broom and straddled it. Her butt felt delightfully comfortable when she unceremoniously dropped it, as if she was sitting on the fluffiest pile of cotton. Looking down, she could see there were still a few inches between her and the broom, which meant that there was either an invisible seat, or that was magic itself she felt on her ass.

"It's a cushioning charm," he said, seemingly reading her mind. Thinking about it though, it was probably a very obvious question everyone had when first sitting on a broom. "Hold on tight," he warned her. She did as asked and immediately realized the genius behind sharing brooms.

If she'd just thought about it, she'd have realized that sharing a broom meant holding on to him from behind, which mean full body contact, which meant getting to feel every inch of him... which was even better than the cuddles she'd fought so hard for. She would have gone gladly back in time and kicked herself, if she could. She'd have to ask Harry if that was possible, later.

Leah pressed her chest against his back and wrapped her arms around his middle, spreading her hands out and grabbing his sides. There might have even been a little discrete thumb stroking. And by discrete, Leah meant completely obvious.

Harry coughed, predictably succumbing to her seduction techniques.

"Right," he cleared his throat. "When I take off-"

Leah interrupted him again, which she had started doing on purpose just because it was starting to get amusing. Though this time she had a better reason. "We should have done this a long time ago," she whispered in his ear sensually, making sure her hot breath hit his cold ear. She felt him shiver a little.

Then he turned around, or tried to, since she was still happily wrapped around him and refused to let go... it was a bit awkward. By the time she'd decided to let go a little(when he'd wiggled enough), and he managed to look at her, she'd thrown an innocent expression on her face. He saw right through it, of course, so she dropped it in favor of her impish smile. "Would you rather have me do that when you were in the air?" Leah asked, rationally, in her opinion.

"True, but you didn't _need_ to do that," he tried explaining, but she just looked at him impassively, conveying silently just how stupid of an idea that was. Obviously, she needed to, or she wouldn't have done it. He could tell what she meant just by her face, that's how perfect they were together.

He just chuckled, shaking his head and turning forward, and kicked off the ground.

Maybe she should have stopped interrupting him, because he didn't bother explaining anything like he was going to previously. He just took off, which made her grab on to him all the harder. Yes, she was a supernaturally strong being, and yes, she was very unlikely to get hurt either way, but being that high on a thin piece of wood was still disconcerting to her.

Cats can land on their feet from very high falls, but that doesn't mean they like being thrown out of windows willy-nilly.

Of course, being the prick that her imprint was, he just laughed and started carelessly spinning in circles, scaring her a little. Not that she'd ever admit it. She really _had_ tried to seem tough about it, but when he did a roll that brought her vision upside down – none of her other excellent very good senses could tell her where she was anymore - she screamed at him to stop.

She got her mercy, but no real pity, since he stopped doing gut churning stunts but didn't stop laughing at her at all. She was breathing hard and contemplating the merits of yelling at him when she was at his mercy, when she caught sight of her surroundings.

They were a good quarter mile off the ground and still rising, giving her a bird's eye view, one of the few advantages she didn't get as a wolf. She could see so much of the town, practically nothing blocking her vision... it was incredible. She could see her house from there, she could see the Cullen's house, she could see Bella's dad's house, she could see _everything._

It was beautiful.

Harry took them a little further up, to the point where they were flying through the lower clouds. The white mist made everything seem harder to look through for Leah, as if there was a film over her eyes. It was probably worse for Harry though – he probably couldn't see at all.

That was what brought her to speak for the first time, "How do you see through that!?" she asked him, speaking right into his ear to be heard.

"I don't really," he shouted back cheerfully.

"What about planes and stuff?" she asked him, only half jokingly. It practically routine for her to be worried about how he would get hurt during his pastimes.

"They fly much farther up than this," he yelled back, "they-"

"There's no need to shout, Harry," she said in his ear amusedly.

There was a bit of red tainting his neck - he must have gotten a little bit embarrassed. The urge to coo was small, completely negligible, but it was there nonetheless. She fully blamed Emily for that.

"Sorry," he apologized at an inside voice level. It was still perfectly clear to her, despite the wind. "They're loud anyways," he said, referring to the planes, "we would hear them coming long before they hit us and I would find an empty patch of sky."

She nodded against his neck, taking the excuse to smell him some more. She told herself that it was okay to smell him, that didn't make her more dog than human... as long as she didn't start sniffing his butt. Even while in wolf form, that would be totally uncool... and tempting, but mostly uncool.

Although she could do it while her pack is phased, just for their reactions. On second thought, it would be even better if she made them see Leah smelling his crotch. If that had been her instinct in the first place, then that was even better for her. She cackled evilly, planning on all the things she would do as revenge for having to listen to them repeat all the times they had sex. It would be even better when she had sex with Harry.

She got another thought, a truly evil one. When they really tried, they could think about what they'd done in enough detail to where the other wolves would get an undiminished first hand experience, meaning that whenever they didn't care too much about the girl, all of them(her included) knew exactly what it was like to have sex with the poor girl. They would even compare and rate sometimes.

That's where her brilliant idea came from.

Of course, she'd had passing thoughts of it before, but her only experience had been with Sam, and that had been too painful for her to think about before Harry. And after Harry, she just didn't _want_ to think about that anymore, mostly because she was ashamed she'd ever even _liked_ Sam, much less agonized over him.

With Harry though... it would work perfectly. She'd even enjoy it.

She would show them exactly what it felt like to be fucked by a guy - in full sensation and detail.

Even better, by the time she was done with them, all of the guys would know exactly what it felt like to suck a dick.

Her laugh was truly evil, she _felt_ evil.

Harry tensed under her for some reason, so naturally, she was instantly on alert. "What's wrong?" she asked out of instinct.

He completely relaxed hearing her voice, which even through her worry made her a tiny bit smug.

"Sorry, you just..." he trailed off. Had he been worried about her falling off? She had been holding on to him fairly tightly, and it wasn't like she had just made any sudden movements other than laugh... "That laugh you just did... it reminded me of someone," he told her.

She cocked her head curiously. Realizing afterward that he couldn't see her, she asked, "who?"

"Her name was Bellatrix Lestrange," he said, shifting in her arms uncomfortably, "she was evil."

"Oh," she smiled, relaxing with understanding. "I was thinking about getting revenge on my pack, so that might be why," she admitted proudly. "They were pretty evil thoughts."

"I'm curious now," he laughed.

She debated on telling him the truth for about half a second. Telling him about smelling his butt... that would be mortifying. About three or four times a day, she would make a fool of herself in front of him, so she thought she's skip it this time.

Telling him about how she'd been thinking of going down on him and then pranking her pack... well, he'd probably love the pranking. And while she was sure he would also appreciate knowing that she'd do _that_ for him... it didn't need to be known yet. If the opportunity came up, she wouldn't hesitate, obviously, but just telling him like that out of no where seemed trashy.

Hinting and teasing was good, but that would just be distasteful. Not only would it be trashy, but it would seem as if she was trying to win him over with sex. Even worse, admitting that she dreamt about it all the time... she didn't need him to know she was that much of a whore for him.

Not yet at least.

So she decided she should probably skip the whole question. He was entirely too good at dragging the truth from her. Being her imprint gave him even more unfair advantage.

"Nah, it's cool," she told him, trying some of that cunning that he was always going on about, and always saying she didn't have any of. "I don't really need help, but I'll ask you for some if it fails." She was quite proud of herself for the thought, that one would fool him for sure. Especially because he was the biggest promoter of doing things by herself, and learning from her mistakes. He would probably nod at her proudly and tell her to keep up the good job.

Unlike her, her imprint was a bit of little-goody-two-shoes. On some things, anyways - he still had a healthy disrespect of rules that she absolutely admired.

"Leah... I grew up with Slytherins against me," whatever that meant, she had no idea, "and you can't fool me." He sounded quite smug. It probably was all the time he was spending with Malfoy, the blond's arrogance must be rubbing off or something. Oh! Slytherins! Malfoy was a Slytherin! But... Malfoy wasn't cunning at all, he was quite an idiot, Leah thought.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said with a very believable expression on her face. Then she remembered she was talking to his ear and he couldn't see her(which was a waste of some very good acting), so she dropped it and made a face childishly, even sticking her tongue out at him.

A tongue that went directly into his ear.

"Ah!" he yelped, flailing an arm over the side of his head to cover his ear, and catching her face in the process. It didn't hurt her, but definitely took her by surprise. His flailing also made him lose control of his broom, which started dropping without his arms holding it up. The combination of all that caused him to hang on to the broom only by his legs, and for Leah to hang onto _him_ using her legs and arms.

Thankfully, they didn't fall off, but it gave her quite a scare. He managed to skillfully angle the broom enough with just his legs so that he could grab it with his hands again, and then straighten it so that they were flying correctly.

Leah didn't put her legs back on the sides of the broom, where they belonged, but just clung on to him, half scared and half embarrassed. For not trying to make a fool out of herself, she really had fucked things up and humiliated herself yet again. Maybe she should _try_ to be moronic all the time, and things would go right... but probably not. They'd probably get worse.

Her stomach dropped even more. What if he was mad at her? She _had_ just endangered their lives - well mostly hers. He could turn into an owl midair or something and be fine. But if he was like her, he'd be more angry about her life being in danger than his anyways... so he might cancel their date or something. Maybe he'll break up with her! Before they even made it official, too! Her legs went to the sides of the broom again, feeling heavy. Why did she always have to do stupid stuff like this, why did she-

"Woo!" Harry screamed out suddenly, startling her out of her deprecating thoughts. Really, she was getting way too dramatic. That was completely unneeded. "That was bloody exciting!" he exclaimed out, like the loon that he was. Leah just shook her head fondly.

She loved him.

"Why didn't you just ask me if you wanted something more exciting?" he asked her, probably smiling insanely.

Deciding not to admit it was by mistake, she mock complained irritably, "well it was so boring!" She hoped he didn't call out her lie like he usually did.

"Oh? You want faster?" she could hear the mischievousness just pouring out his voice. He must have been too excited to see through her. Hell, he had even forgotten about the revenge she was planning on her pack, and the whole evil laugh!

The excitement she could feel coming from him was catchy, adding to the excitement of finally pulling one over his head, which rarely ever happened. That made her catch up to him, bouncing in her seat just like him. "Yeah! I mean, we're just going through clouds, not even seeing anything!" she exclaimed eagerly, running a hand out through the clouds, which felt odd on her skin for some reason.

She stared out at the clouds more and ran a hand out again. They felt fluffy, just like they did hitting her face and everything... but something was off. She rubbed her fingers together and noticed it. They were completely dry. "I thought we'd get wet from going through clouds," she said confusedly. She thought about how that's what happened in all the cartoons that she'd watched as a kid, like superheroes going through the clouds and coming out drenched... but those were just TV shows. "Or not... I was just guessing..." she said, ducking her face in his neck in case she was just being stupid.

He laughed, "It's a charm on the newer brooms like this one, so that you don't get wet," he told her. Well, that was a pretty awesome feature. She wondered how many for things like that the broom did. Then Harry spoke suddenly, and not making much sense. "Don't worry, you'll be safe."

That was a bit confusing, she thought. It sounded sweet, the words, but it's not like clouds would really hurt her. She started to laugh... until she felt the weightlessness.

She immediately clamped all her available limbs around him. He had laughed psychotically and pointed the end of his broom straight down. And then she felt herself speed up. The weightlessness left her, making her feel as if she was going up instead of down, but up being the ground and down being the sky. Rationally, she could tell they were dropping through the clouds, because she could still see the sunlight behind her, but the speed at which they were accelerating downwards made her feel differently. Since they were laying down on the broom, accelerating downward, it felt like gravity was pulling them upward. It was slightly confusing to her.

However, as soon as they broke the cover of the clouds, she could see a little more clearly, and paid more attention to the ground coming up to them. They were still fairly far away, at least a few dozen miles, and enough as to where it wasn't scary, but the adrenaline was making her feel a little high and giddy. She laughed just as madly as he was and hung on tighter, reveling in the speed.

If there was one thing that her imprint _needed_ to have, was a love for speed. While she would probably still have loved him if they didn't have that shared passion, she sincerely doubted there wouldn't be any disappointment. And it was _hard_ to be disappointment about your imprint. However, that worked both ways. If she would have been disappointed to find out he didn't like it... she was _absolutely_ _euphoric_ to find out he did. She felt elated and just _free_, going so fast, her imprint in her arms. They had probably just hit a hundred and fifty miles an hour now.

And that's when the speed became fast enough that the wind was affecting them. The effect was that the wind hit them hard enough to where Harry couldn't make the broom accelerate anymore, so they started to even out in speed.

Which meant that they weren't accelerating anymore.

Which meant that Leah could feel they were upside down again.

Which meant that she remembered they were going a hundred and fifty miles an hour, straight at the ground.

"Okay, Harry," she yelled a bit frantically, her previous elation all but gone, "you can start pulling up now." They were still a good half mile away from the ground, so they had time.

"Not yet," Harry screamed back.

Leah took a few deep breaths and resisted the urge to yell to go up now, but just barely. She waited about five seconds. Quarter Mile.

"Okay! I definitely think we should be going up now!" she screamed, definitely frantically now.

Harry didn't swerve an inch.

"Not yet," he screamed back again.

"Pull the fuck up now Harry!" she shrieked, completely losing her shit.

"Not yet," he repeated, only this time she could hear the glee in it. _Oh fuck_, she repeated in her mind hysterically, _My imprint is fucking suicidal_. They were only about two hundred yards away from the ground now, practically the last chance to pull up. She screamed in his ear that if she didn't pull up now they would fucking _crash and die._

Well, she just shrieked in his ear, but the sentiment couldn't have been more clear.

They were about sixty yards away. That was it. He didn't even have a shot now. She closed her eyes and screamed as loud as she could, too scared to do anything else.

And then she finally felt him pull up, the way his body flexed barely registering through her panicked mind. When the broom responded, it felt nothing like when they were accelerating, where it had started out slowly and then the force got stronger and stronger until it felt like gravity was the wrong way.

There was nothing slow about it.

No, this time, it felt like he had just slammed on the breaks, instead of accelerating steadily. All of her weight seemed to triple instantly, her upper body pressing down uncomfortably on her spine, making it feel like someone standing on her shoulders. Her arms and legs got heavier, making it very hard for her to keep them from disturbing Harry(even in her panic, not hurting her imprint was her first priority). It felt like she was heavy enough to break the broom they were on, everything about her felt like it was getting stretched. She could even feel the hair on her head pulling on her scalp by the roots, as if a vacuum cleaner had just caught it.

It wasn't like any of it hurt or anything, she was a werewolf after all, but it felt weird nonetheless.

However, all of this she noticed much later. At the moment, all she could think of was that she was going to die, and that she failed at protecting her imprint. They were the right way now, so any minute she would feel her legs hitting the ground and breaking, which would mean that _Harry's_ legs would hit the ground and break. Then the rest of their bodies would catch up and break too. She might survive, but probably not.

So she just kept shrieking.

Then she felt prickles on her legs, startling her. Maybe that's what breaking them felt like, she'd never done it before. She looked down, expecting to see them bloody and broken, maybe even a few bones sticking out in places, but all she saw was the tall grass hitting her very healthy – and sexy with the clothes she was wearing, she hoped – legs.

"Woo!" Harry rooted, making his cheer long and loud. Leah could only breathe hard, still unable to move in her fright. She wasn't able to react, either, by the time Harry got up high again. He was still cheering and laughing giddily. Leah just stared at the back of his head, torn between maiming him and hugging him in relief.

"Leah?" he asked her, laugh still in his voice.

"Hm?" she hummed, because she couldn't work her mouth.

"You alright?" he asked, just starting to come down from his high, concern seeping into his voice.

"Yeah," she managed, her voice sounding weak to her.

He tensed under her, and grabbed her left hand, pulling it off him. Before she could ask him what he was doing, or make a sound close to it, he twisted his torso until he was facing him with his upper body, his legs still holding the broom in a twisted way. It looked terribly uncomfortable.

It also made him look a lot like an owl.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked her worriedly.

"Yeah," she gave a little laugh, calming down now. "That was exciting," she smiled at him. "I forgot that Hermione told me you're practically the best flier ever," she stopped and glared at him, "although a warning would have been much better."

Harry went to turn forward again, but she stopped him, scared that she had offended him. However, she forgot how ridiculous her imprint was. "I'm not _that_ good..." he mumbled.

Of course, he would get _that_ out of everything she said.

Leah rolled her eyes at him. "Just give me a warning next time, I might have enjoyed it if I remembered there was no danger," she glared a little, but mostly replayed what just happened in her mind. If she had known there was no danger... it would've been one of the most exciting things she'd ever done.

The grin on his face brought her excitement all over again. "Okay, then. How about next we do this..."

For the next half hour Harry took her dipping and diving, he shot upwards, he turned and stopped on a dime, he did more than she'd thought possible on a broom. He even rolled over again, making her go upside down... then he did it continuously, just spiraling, while the broom went in a straight line.

There were a few times when she stopped him and asked him questions about how it worked, like how sometimes he could do a roll where they would spiral around the broom, and other times they would do a turn where they would spin in place, but their feet and broom spiraled around them. She asked him how that could even be possible, how a broom could be weightless one second, and practically an unmovable column the next. His answer was...

"Magic, of course."

She glared at him, and the answer became, "I can't control how much it weighs – well I _can,_ but I didn't. I _did_, however, control when I put magic into it or not... you need _a lot_ of control to do that mid air though," he had explained excitedly, much more excitedly than he'd ever explained anything, "if I use my magic to control it, it pushes at the air kind of..." he struggled for words for a second, "well, when we're upside down, and we're hanging on as if it was a monkey bar," he said, getting a chuckle out of her by citing things from recess, "I'm not just _hanging on_," he explained emphatically, "I'm technically _pushing down_ too... on the broom. Or pushing upwards in terms of relative position, not just on the broom. It's hard, psychologically, to push up when you're hanging on upside down. It's more of a will thing, it's why very few can do it."

She praised him, suitably impressed. He, of course, excused that it was because he was an owl, so that was an unfair advantage, but she was quite adamant that he was perfect, so that wasn't it. She didn't say it quite like that, not wanting to freak him out with intense declarations, but he was still blushing like a school boy by the end.

That time she did coo at him, his embarrassment too cute to restrain herself. Thankfully, he just took it as mocking, which was just fine with her since it helped her save face.

Her favorite part, however, was when she got to seduce him a little more. He had been explaining all the new things he had practiced, but hadn't been able to pull off. Like the one thing that almost every professional quidditch player has tried, but only a handful have achieved: Flying laying down. That gave her the perfect opening.

"Hmm," she hummed thoughtfully, "I think the few that have been able to... they probably had the proper motivation," she said to him as she took one of her hands off of him and pretended to run her hand through the clouds again. "Something that you could use," she said breezily.

"Oh?" he asked, curiosity in his voice, "what kind of motivation?"

"Well," she started out in a slower, lower, sultry voice, snaking her hand back on his stomach. "I guess there's just certain things you can do when you're laying down," she said, moving her mouth even closer to his ear, now almost whispering, "that you can't do otherwise." As she had said that, she moved to grip his sides tightly like she did when she needed to hang on more. Except as her hand ran through his stomach, she made sure to slip her pinky into the waistband of his pants, lightly caressing the hair she felt there. He gave a small gasp, to which she innocently replied with a bright, "just a thought."

She really hoped he practiced it now.

It took him a while to be able to speak again, a reaction she positively _loved,_ but when he did, she decided to lay off the teasing for a bit. She wanted to have a conversation with him as well.

"So I thought you said this was the quicker way," Leah said after about ten minutes of bantering. It was mostly him grumbling about her being a succubus. She took it as a compliment.

"Did I say that?" Harry asked, surprised. "I meant fast as in speed."

"Oh," Leah blinked. "Well, then where are we going?"

"I thought I'd show you Hogsmeade," Harry told her nonchalantly.

How he said that lightly at all, she had no idea. She had been looking forward to see a magical place ever since he had first told her about them, the very first day after the bonfire. The first time they had sat down together, it had been slightly awkward for all of the ten seconds it took Leah to ask him to show her some magic, just like a little kid at the carnival.

Or at the zoo, when she kept throwing stuff at the lions, expcting them to wake up and do something interesting for her. She was such a brat.

Harry had immediately grinned knowingly, fixing and cleaning her tattered dress with a jaunty wave of his hand. It had made her just the tiniest bit self conscious, and a little worried that he'd thought it looked ugly. She had made an effort after that day to look a little better., which really just meant she brought underwear with her; there wasn't much else she could do.

He soothed her fears some, however, by telling her about how Hermione had fixed _his_ glasses when he first met her. Sharing things like that with her imprint made it all better. She was also very glad that Hermione had told him about contacts, he should not have to hide those eyes, they were a gift to the world(hers) and should be shown.

However, what had excited her the most that day(other than the hugs) was when he talked about the magical towns and about Hogwarts. She couldn't wait to see them, any of them. Especially Hogwarts, but they had to get special permission to use international floo, apparently, and as a muggle – that's what they'd classify her as – it would be ten times as hard to get her permission. Not only that, but it was too far to go another way... much too far...

"Harry! It's going to take hours to get there if we fly there, it's all the way in Scotland!" Leah said disbelievingly.

"We're not flying all the way there, silly," he shook his head at her amusedly.

"What are we doing then?"

"You see that big gray cloud over there?" he pointed forward, and only a few degrees to the left, "the one with all the lightning and stuff?"

"Err," she blinked, thinking about how the hell that had anything to do with it. She had learned early on that magic was very illogical though, so she just nodded and said, "Yeah."

"It's fake," he said to her disbelieving raised eyebrows. Even though he couldn't see them. "_We_ see a scary fucking cloud. _Owls_ see a portal to other countries. I think there's lots of them around the world, I found a few already, but that's how we do international mail."

She nodded in understanding. From a conversation they'd had with Hermione, she had said that wizards always tried to adapt their already chosen solution, not try to think of a better one. Therefore, they'd always use owls, and not try to come up with a better way. But Harry dared her to come up with a better way. He won that one.

"Alright, fly through it, easy enough," she nodded.

"Err," Harry sounded nervous. They were just starting to enter the cloud. "It's a bit more complicated than that," he started to raise his voice, because of the fake lightning sounds. At least she hoped they were fake sounds. She didn't bother telling him he still didn't need to shout because she was a little more preoccupied with how he was avoiding the question.

"Harry! Tell me now!" she shouted nervously.

"Well, people can't go through it... but _owls_ can," he hedged again. "And so can the packages they're carrying."

Leah just looked at him like he'd gone crazy. "_How_ does that help us get- what are you doing!?" Harry had grabbed her hands and taken them off from around him, shifting forward and away from her a bit, then put them on the broom shaft between them. Then in an easy practiced motion, he started to stand up on the broom, just like she'd seen surfers do at the beach.

That's when she lost her shit and started getting hysterical. "What the fuck are you _doing_!?"

Her imprint, her _cheeky _imprint, turned his head back to her, wearing a _fucking grin_, and he said to her. "Hang on to my foot tightly and the broom," she quickly did so, too confused to do anything but follow directions. "Remember when I said that this way might be slightly scary?"

"Yeah?" she asked, starting to get scared herself, definitely getting that ominous feeling.

"Don't let go of me or the broom," he warned her.

"I thought the dive was supposed to be the-" but she didn't finish the sentence, because he turned into an owl.

They were flying and he _turned into an owl_. She didn't know if he had forgotten, but she couldn't fly a broom.

So it was really no surprise when they started dropping almost immediately. He, however was still flapping away, as if a three pound owl could carry two hundred pounds of werewolf girl and a broom, which he was clutching with the other leg. She shrieked and held on to Harry, miraculously not breaking his hollow-boned little leg.

Almost immediately he shifted back and sat them down on the broom, easily righting them.

Leah was still shrieking.

"Was that fun or what?" he asked her, laughing.

"Why the fuck did you just do that?" she asked him, breathing hard and wanting to pummel his face. If only he wasn't her imprint, she would. But seriously, this was the second time he'd scared the shit out of her.

When she'd first imprinted, like all other wolves, she was worried about scaring him with her wolf. She should have known, everything in her life was backward.

He just laughed delightedly and gestured out to her surroundings. Leah glanced out reflexively, instead of yelling at him like she really wanted to.

"Oh," she breathed out. "It's beautiful."

It really was. The scenery had changed around her without her notice. Instead of the deep deep green that she had gotten used to around forks, there was a lighter green with sparser trees, but it felt no less alive. But that wasn't the most beautiful part.

No, the most beautiful thing was the majestic castle in front of her that looked as if it had be wrought with magic itself. Whether imagined or not, she could almost feel the magic around her, merrily jumping on her skin.

Harry's description, as most of his were, was understated, and did not do the castle justice at all. When he'd said countless towers, she'd imagined about seven or eight at most. No, he _meant _countless towers, being completely correct in the word, because half of the structures she couldn't figure out if they could be considered a tower by themselves or not. Like a little one coming off of the side of a huge one in the front. Is that its own tower? Or is it called two separate towers. She didn't know. Even so, there had to be at least twenty of them.

Then there was the quidditch pitch Harry said he played on, the forest that contained the unicorns and giant spiders, the courtyard where he would socialize...

Leah reached over and kissed Harry on the cheek in appreciation, all without taking her eyes off the castle, looking for all the little things that Harry had mentioned.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was bored.

It really wasn't that big of a difference from his usual day in Forks, but it was still nothing that a _Malfoy _should have to experience_._ At least that's how it had been ever since Potter became friends with his mistress-now-turned-girlfriend that lived out in that reservation. They spent almost all day together now, every single day.

How Potter could stand a woman for that long, he'd never know.

Draco himself couldn't stand his girlfriend for more than a few days in a row, and she was a pureblood! It definitely helped that she wasn't nearly as bad as Parkinson. Draco shuddered.

Still, the poor bloke must be completely bonkers if spending time with the girl was his only option. He never tried hanging out with _him_... although that was probably because of his status.

It was true that Draco seemed unapproachable at times, being an esteemed pureblood who didn't usually consort with his inferiors. It _was _true that he was graceful, extremely skilled, and practically the epitome of masculinity. Things like those could be intimidating, so he couldn't condemn Potter for not approaching him...

Maybe he'd do something nice for Potter, something with only guy time. He'd have to invite some of his friends to come over, Weasley wouldn't do. This would also be a great time to teach Potter how to befriend some proper purebloods. With him being distinguished enough that his blood status could be ignored. Not that he was bigoted or anything... or at least he was trying not to be, but purebloods were just better, that was common knowledge.

No, he was proud to say he wasn't bigoted at all anymore.

Excited about having something to do, Draco went upstairs to get his list of floo addresses. It had all of his friends in there.

He went down the list.

* * *

_Draco Malfoy's Acquaintances list_

_Unbigoted Revision_

_With Characteristic Notes_

_-**Parkinson, Pansy.** Parkinson Manor. Clingy. Avoid._

_-**Greengrass, Astoria.** Greengrass Manor. Reputable, perfect in with quidditch players, current girlfriend._

_-**Bullstrode, Millicent.** Bullstrode Manor. Not a great conversationalist. Ugly. Dead._

_-**Zabini, Blaise.** Zabini Manor. Reputable. Stuck up. Beware of succubus mother. Hates me._

_-**Crabbe, Vincent.** Crabbe Manor. Brainless. Dead. _

_-**Goyle, Gregory.** Goyle Manor. Brainless. Azkaban._

_-**Nott, Theodore. **Nott Manor. Reputable. Hates me. Dead._

_-**Flint, Marcus.** Flint Manor. Got me banned me from Wasps stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position._

_-**Higgs, Terrence.** Higgs Manor. Got me banned from Wanderer's Stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position. _

_-**Pucey, Adrian.** Pucey Manor. Got me banned from Puddlemere's Stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position._

_-**Greengrass, Daphne.** Greengrass Manor. Hates me. Frigid Bitch. Avoid at all costs._

_-**Davis, Tracey. **Floo Address Unknown. Half-blood. Friends with Daphne. Avoid._

_-**Potter, Scarhead.** 12 Grimmauld Place. Half-blood. Lots of connections. Could use better friends. _

_-**Weasley, All of them.** The Burrow. Blood traitors. Poor, rude, too many of them. Avoid if possible._

* * *

Draco scratched his head. That certainly didn't really help.

Was _Potter_ really his only one male friend... ish? That was sad. He'd have to get some more friends soon. It shouldn't be hard, he was Draco Malfoy after all, and making friends was one of his many skills. He nodded his head. Later.

First though, to keep looking for his neck pillow that he couldn't find...

Although on second though, and on a rare bout of logic, he remembered that he'd tried summoning it countless times, and if that didn't work, the possibility of him finding it by hand was extremely small.

He looked out the window forlornly. Well, he was just bored, but forlornly sounded much more _deep_ in his mind. He was a deep, complicated, intelligent man, so routine words like _bored,_ he pondered disgustedly,were insufficient to properly convene how he felt. Including whichever acts he so deigned acceptable for his station.

That got boring quickly.

At least it took him a while to think of all that, and killed some time. He sighed opened the window, bored again. Then he noticed something outside.

The car! It was there!

He'd been wanting to drive that muggle thing for weeks now, but Potter had apparently left it at his mistress-now-turned-girlfriend's house and never brought it back. Last time he got to drive it, it wasn't fun at all because of Potter, but finally, he'd get to use it. Alone.

Draco looked for the keys, but they were not in any of their shared spaces. Potter must have taken them with him, the selfish berk.

No matter! His father had taught him a spell to hijack muggle cars, so that he could sell them later. At first, when he was young and a little less amazing, Draco had been disgusted at touching something muggle, but his father had explained it to him well.

"If we don't take it from them, then the muggles would keep it."

Draco understood the sentiment _then_, but he didn't completely agree with stealing from muggles anymore. He used to be great, but now, almost impossibly, he was even greater, since he was no longer bigoted.

However, it was only Potter that he was stealing from. That was fine. He was rich anyways, he could use with losing a few toys.

Giddily, he went outside and charmed the car door to open. He bounced inside - in a dignified manner, of course - and charmed the car to start.

He was so excited. Finally he could drive it without Potter next to him saying things like "the brake, Malfoy! The brake!" or "Malfoy! That's a child you're about to hit!" or just "between the lines, Malfoy! Between the lines!"

It was all very stupid to Draco.

Everyone knows that muggles move out of the way of vehicles.

_Hello, _he'd been on the Knight Bus before.

Draco rolled his eyes at Potter being a pansy. Really, _he_ was the Gryffindor? Well, he wasn't here and now Draco was running the show.

So now Draco tried to remember what to do next. The car was facing the forest, so he had enough space to do a circle and end up looking out, but he wanted to do the right thing and reverse first.

Because Draco was a smart man.

So Draco looked at the shift, and promptly put it on first. Because first you reverse and secondly you go. He could figure this out.

Because Draco was a smart man.

He was also an important(impatient) man, so he didn't have time to go and back out slowly. Even though he was only there because he was bored, but he'd already forgotten about that. So Draco hit the gas hard.

And promptly accelerated right into a tree.

Thankfully, Potter had put up some safety charms, so barely a hair was out of place on Draco's head. Potter wasn't worthless _all_ of the time.

He decided to try again. But this time, when he tried to start the car, it only made clanking sounds and refused to start.

Such faulty things that muggles made.

Draco kept trying, but he eventually got bored and went back inside with a huff. There, he decided to call his girlfriend, because someone had to cheer him up, and he had no one else. He would have bothered Potter, but he was on a date.

Maybe he should do that with his own girlfriend, it would be nice to give her a treat. Contrary to popular belief, Draco wasn't completely ruthless and cunning, he did have a heart. He cared about his girlfriend and wanted her to be happy.

And have sex.

They'd go on a date in Hogsmeade. That'd be nice. Potter could go and find his own friends.

* * *

Leah was walking next to Harry through the streets of Hogsmeade. She was trying to keep her cool, but it was hard when she was on a date with her imprint, _and_ at a magical town after a broom ride. All on the same day. Hopefully, he'd let her show him exactly how pleased with him she was later.

"I'm going to get you back for scaring me like that by the way," she teased, lightly bumping shoulders.

"It was the only way," Harry shrugged at her smiling. "Besides, it was already payback for all the teasing you were doing up there," he gave her a pointed look.

She, of course, tried acting innocent. It never really worked for her, since she was pretty much born corrupted. Maybe she'd just corrupt him enough to where she will seem innocent by comparison. That might have a better shot.

So once he snorted at her attempt, she went with the truth. "You liked it." At least she hoped it was the truth.

Harry didn't answer, but stared ahead impassively. She'd have thought he was mad, if it wasn't for the very small blush that he was sporting. If she hadn't been a werewolf she wouldn't have seen it.

"Aw, Harry liked it!" she crowed happily, overjoyed in the fact. Of course, she couldn't just finish with that. She got closer to him. "I liked it even more, you know," she told him lowly, in what she hoped was a sexy voice.

"Leah," Harry groaned and put his hands in his pockets uncomfortably. "Talk about something else, please." If he was hiding what she thought he was hiding in his pants, she should probably stop before it becomes a real problem.

"Fine, fine. Wanna know what the best part about being a werewolf is?" she distracted him.

He sighed, looking ridiculously relieved. "No," he told her, with honest curiosity now. "What is it?"

She was going to stop teasing him and tell him something sweet. Something like... it was imprinting, because it connected them together. He would always say sweet things to her, and she'd have trouble being as smooth as him. The sweetest thing she'd ever said to him, was 'I'm going to stalk you forever, you know. You can't get away from me'. Yeah, she could use with more practice. That was why it would be a perfect time for a sweet comment.

But then again, she never knew when to stop.

"Gravity defying boobs," she told him giddily, absolutely loving how much it was affecting him. "The bra doesn't support them, they support the bra." She even wiggled her chest a little for him. She liked that description. Gravity defying... she decided to affectionately call them space boobs.

Harry looked away quickly and shifted his pants, not being able to be subtle about it at all anymore. He tried glaring at her for a second, but she saw through it – and it made her even happier to finally win for once, so his face dropped into a resigned expression. "Name your price," he told her, still with his hands in his pockets.

She grinned victoriously, not trying to tone down her gloating at all. Inordinately pleased, she basked in the feeling of flirting with her imprint like this, something she'd been wanting to do for ages. In fact, she even did an exaggerated fist pump to show just how seriously she took that win.

It might have been slightly pathetic.

Once her celebration was done, which Harry just chuckled at, she tapped her chin with her finger, trying to think of what she wanted – and what she could pull off. Those pants _did_ look deliciously uncomfortable, something that giving _her_ her own problems. She decided to be nice, since he _was_ taking her out on a date. Not because it was affecting her too much. "I'll be nice since you're working so hard for me," she told him imperiously, to which he rolled his eyes. She really gave his eyes a work out, with how much he rolled them at her. "Hold my hand for the rest of the evening then, and we shall call this... adjourned."

Harry blinked at her. "I don't think that's the proper use of that word..."

Leah glared at him, showing her disagreement, and folded her arms. "Okay, _Hermione,_ what is the proper use?"

"Err..." Harry said, frowning. Leah knew he didn't know what he was talking about. She remembered learning what the word meant in like _sixth grade_. He didn't know what he was talking about. "It's like for meetings," he said, still frowning, "like when they're over and stuff."

"No," she shook her head stubbornly. "You're wrong."

"Oh?" he arched an eyebrow at her challengingly. "What does it mean then?"

"Err. It _means_..." she trailed off. She couldn't quite remember exactly how to explain it, but she _knew_ she was right. He smirked at her knowingly. He might be her imprint, and therefore perfect, but she still _hated _being proven wrong. _"It_ _means_," she repeated, glaring, and a plan starting to form in her head, "to touch yourself."

Harry sputtered a bit, surprised laughter bursting out. "That's ridiculous, _and _it doesn't fit into our conversation at-"

"Of course it does!" she interrupted. "For example," she said and lowered her voice, getting closer to him and pressing his arm between her space boobs, "I _adjourn _every night," she pressed herself even closer, making sure her hot breath hit him, "thinking of you. Always thinking of you."

Harry gulped and took a step back, raising his hands. "Okay, you're right, you're right. Adjourn means... whatever you meant," he nodded quickly.

She smiled again, satisfied, ignoring his unintentional jab at her. She held her hand out expectantly, which he hastily took, making her smile even more broadly.

"Alright, I'll talk about something else," she said reluctantly, stroking her thumb on his knuckles as apology. "How about the portals we came through?"

Harry looked ridiculously relieved. "What about them?"

"Well, is there portals like those, ones that work for people?" Leah asked curiously, seeing the possibilities with it. She would put a portal from her house to the grocery store. Well, Harry's house. She'd decided to move to his house. She'd inform him of that decision later.

"No," Harry sighed and seemed oddly melancholy. "No one even fully knew of them, not before I went flying with my owl just for fun when he was delivering a letter to Hermione," he said, his eyes far.

"Err... That's awesome Harry," she said trying to sound enthusiastic for his achievement despite his tone. He gave her a small smile. "So why do you look so down?"

"It just always makes me think..," Harry said trailing off. She watched him patiently, waiting for him to get his thoughts together. "Well it's just that nobody knows who did it. We have no way to replicate it, we're not even close to doing that kind of magic."

Leah thought she understood. "Ah, so you're worried about someone having that kind of power and you not even knowing about it," she said a bit worriedly.

Harry surprised her by laughing. "No. I know who did it."

"But you just-"

"No, I mean..." Harry interrupted, then started "I know it was someone a long time ago, just not who _exactly_. It was probably thousands of years ago. That's what's depressing, we're actually a long way _behind_what we were millenniums ago," he said frustrated. "It's because of the government taking the easy way out on everything and blaming muggles. Right now, there's a lot of corruption still left over in the ministry."

He sighed and started over. "A long time ago, in the time of Merlin, wizards weren't really recognized until they did something major for the community. Something that helped them all, and it had to be something original," he said with admiration, even awe when he talked next. "Like how Merlin helped build Stonehenge by searching the world for the strongest leylines and taking months to purify each and every stone. He did countless rituals to prepare the place for eternity, going as far as including giants to carry them so that he didn't taint them with _any_ of his magic." He was smiling by the end. "The founders were the last to do this. Each one created innovative things to help the school. The sorting hat, the room of requirements, even the chamber of secrets was supposed to protect the school."

Then he sighed and all his excitement seemed to leave him. "The ministry was founded at the same time. They started to regulate magics. They banned a lot of things. It was a good idea in principle, but magic is almost impossible to regulate. The only thing they did, was remove the knowledge from the general public, because the worst of wizards still found it." He shook his head. "It actually helped the criminals, because that's where it all ended up. Not only that, but those kinds of magics are good to learn about if you're going to be delving into any of the more powerful magics."

"It was a flaw that didn't show up for generations," he said saddened.

Leah felt sad herself. She was suddenly very proud of her tribe though, for keeping their culture and traditions, and for passing on the stories as much as they could. Although if she really thought about it, they couldn't spirit walk anymore like they used to...

"That's what you and Hermione are working toward though," she tried to cheer him up. She also very much enjoyed not counting Ron in their group. Or Ginny. "You're both working toward making it better, even if it's only a little."

"Well," he smiled again, "it's mostly Hermione."

"No it's not," she stated, a bit angry that he didn't give himself enough credit. "She might be the smart one, but you're not slouch yourself. And you're practically all of the muscle," Harry reddened as she kept talking. "Not only in magic, since she has you do all the major spells, but _politically_ as well. You're the one that has the Wizardemot-"

"Wizengamot" he injected.

"Whatever, the_ Wizengamot_ seat and voice," she didn't _fully _know what she was talking about – he'd explained it a long time ago – but it seemed to be working well enough. His blush was receding and he was looking almost proud. She knew _she_ was proud at cheering him up. This would be her favorite job from now on.

Leah, professional... er... cheerer-uper? She didn't want to be called cheerleader. Too gay.

"So you go and use it. I know you can," she said, being completely cheesy. Her grin said she knew it was cheesy as well. "Besides, I only imprint on the best of the best," she turned up her nose haughtily. That, she could pull off quite well.

Harry laughed – a real laugh – and grinned widely at her. "You're amazing," he informed her, as if she didn't already know. It was alright though, it was still nice hearing it. Okay, fine, she almost swooned. If she had been a more girly girl she would have, but she was _tough_.

At least until he let go of her hand to put it around her waist, making her give her dreamiest sigh.

Then he informed her that they were going to sneak into Hogwarts. Both of those things making the date even better – and seriously how much better was he going to make it, she was practically gliding in her happiness already.

They walked toward a secret passage that he told her about, with her cuddled into him and a comfortable silence between them.

* * *

Hermione was content.

She had the day off, and she decided to go to Hogsmeade with Ginny, to try and make her feel a little bit better. Maybe as an apology for getting all crazy on her. Not that she'd ever admit it, being called irrational was one of her weak points. She had also asked Ron to come for dinner as well, so they could work on Ginny together.

Hogsmeade was the logical choice to her. Harry couldn't bring Leah here on his date because Leah was not allowed to floo internationally. There weren't many ways for them to get there otherwise, the only ones being experimental... which Harry actually _was _quite likely to try. But in all fairness, Harry was just as likely to do anything else, so _logically_ it's still the least likely choice. Not only that, but if Harry were to want to show Leah a magical town, he'd show Diagon Alley, since it was a less likely place to be recognized. At Hogsmeade, they took Harry's legend more seriously than anywhere else, since he fought in that area.

The last safeguard that Hermione had, was that if Harry were to show up there, Hogwarts would be too tempting a place to sneak in for him. No male can resist trying to show off their little hiding places to the women they try to woo. It's basic instinct, like showing off their nesting places. If there was anything that Hermione could count on with Harry, was his instinct.

"So what are we doing then, Hermione?" Ginny asked, her voice chipper.

Hermione smiled at her friend being happy already. Ginny was strong, and her relationship with Harry wasn't as serious as they made it out to be. She would be fine.

"Shopping first!" Hermione said in the most excited voice she could muster.

She hated shopping. But friends were important for emotional well being, and being selfless was the most important part of keeping your friends happy. From all her observation, keeping your friends happy made one happy as well. She was no different.

It might even affect her more since she hadn't had that any in her childhood. That had been why keeping Harry happy was the most important thing to her during most of school. Of course, Harry would disagree that having your homework done, and being safe was equal to happiness, but Hermione tried her best. Ron was easier to keep happy. Plus, he annoyed her back then.

Ginny grinned at her knowingly. "You're really making a sacrifice here, huh?"

As much as she read from her muggle acting books, they didn't help her at all. Just like when she had tried to read and learn how to ride a broom. Her and physical things don't mix that well. Apparently acting is physical enough to where she'd be bad at it.

Well, she decided to just be honest. Honesty was another big part of friendship, she'd read a long time ago. She'd stuck with it and it hadn't failed yet.

"It may not be my _favorite_ activity, but I can enjoy it if you like it enough," she informed Ginny.

Ginny grabbed her hand excitedly and they went inside of the dress shop. She looked around.

For some reason, her memory did not work at the same efficiency that it usually did, whenever she looked at clothes. The most likely reason was that it was just very very unimportant to her, therefore her brain didn't make it a priority to analyze the models enough to where some kind of memorization technique unintentionally went into effect. That's how most of her memories were saved so well. Her brain would automatically run through different techniques on how to remember everything. Most of them were things that most people did regularly, like think about what she had just read a few times in her head. Or she would try and poke holes in the content, or come up with arguments on how to defend against counter arguments. Interesting things.

She just couldn't do that for boring things like quidditch or clothes.

"Oh look!" Ginny exclaimed next to her after they had entered the store. "A sale!" and she quickly ran off.

Logically, Hermione knew that sales were misleading. Most of the time, if there was a reason for the sale, then there was a reason for why not to buy them. Sometimes the clothes be defective, so that's why they were getting rid of them, or the style would be unpopular soon, not that she cared about the style, but it was the principle. That's not to say they were _always_ misleading, just statistically speaking, most of the time.

At least they would meet Ron for dinner later at a nice restaurant, one that overlooked a street with a beautiful scenery. It was her favorite one. That would be much more interesting than this.

Hermione gave a great big sigh and steeled herself to try and make limericks out of the cuts, styles and brands of the clothes, using transfiguration laws in each verse. If that didn't make it more interesting, nothing would.

* * *

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble if they catch us here?" Leah asked Harry worriedly.

"Not too much," he shrugged. "Why? Scared of detention?" he smirked at her.

Leah scoffed. "I'd probably enjoy them, to be honest- ooh, the paintings move! Look!" Leah excitedly pointed them out to Harry. Some of them were even talking! Yes, she knew that he'd gone to school there, and that he very well knew that the portraits moved.

But it was just so freaking exciting!

The sneaking was probably the best part though. Harry brought out his invisibility cloak and they huddled in together – brilliant decision, sharing a small cloak – and they tip toed across stairs, corridors, and even secret passages that she would always 'ooh' and 'ah' at. That's how they got into Hogwarts, which they were now traversing. When they reached a portrait of fruit, he admitted to her that none of that was actually needed, since he could tell if anyone was coming.

It just made it cooler. She could have quite happily raped him right there.

Well, technically she could _always_ quite happily rape him _anywhere_, but the urge was particularly strong then.

Then he tickled a pear, which giggled – magical things would never get old to her – and the portrait swung in, showing the kitchens. The vaunted safe house, from what he always told. Not just because it was too pleasant a place to fight, even with Slytherins, but because the house elves didn't let them.

Then she met the house elves.

Really, nothing could have prepared her for meeting those little buggers. It might have just been the cutest thing she'd ever seen – if she didn't count anything about her imprint, of course.

They were _tiny_, and she just wanted to grab one and cuddle it. Their ears were so big and just so _floppy_. She really wanted to grab them and wiggle them around. Their eyes were bigger than her fists, all of them staring up at her, asking her if she needed anything at all. And all of them absolutely adored her imprint.

Which is understandable. He_ was_ perfect, after all.

That was why, after meeting so many of the cute little guys, she met one that wasn't so cute. Well, that was debatable, but for a bit, she didn't look so cute at all.

Apparently, she was the elf of a past Death Eater, one who had a very special hate for Harry. The little house elf had a plan to become Harry's elf and then get revenge.

The elves that worshiped Harry were the ones that thwarted her, and informed him of her plan.

"You were going to kill him?" Leah asked, half horrified, half murderous.

"Death be too good for _Potty_," Minty - that was the little lady house elf's name - spit out his name. "No, _Potty_ would be being alive to suffer, Minty would make sure," she said, with a very out of place vengeful expression on her elfin face.

"What would you do?" Harry asked worriedly. Although he seemed more worried for the elf's sanity than his own life. He looked like he really wanted to go and hug her.

"Minty would have burnt your food for every meal!" Minty declared evilly. The other elves yelled in protest. Leah held in her snickers somehow. "That is not all Minty would being doing, Minty would being much worse!" The elf paused for a few seconds, while the other elves looked at her angrily. "Minty would have being using her master's tippies!"

The reaction was immediate. As one, all the elves in the kitchen gasped, covering their mouths in shock. One of them fainted, and had to be carried out. Another, one of the younger elves, was muttering about the dishonor, the shame.

Leah raised her eyebrow at Harry in question, to which he shrugged. "Um, could one of you guys tell me what exactly tippies are. Err, or is," he looked her in question this time, but she was no good at grammar so she just shrugged back.

One of the little guys spoke up though, "Tippies is being the pot chamber, Master Great Harry Potter, sir!" That was another thing that made her want to laugh, they names they called him. There were actually a few longer ones than that one. She would have to start calling him that now, to tease him.

Now she could see Harry struggling to not laugh, but she didn't exactly get it. "A pot chamber? Like pots and pans? As in a kitchen?" she asked confusedly. "Don't they work there anyways?"

Harry had been struggling to speak while still hiding his laughter, so he didn't get to interrupt her. "Pot chambers are bathrooms," he ground out through the giggles that were threatening to erupt from him.

Leah hadn't even known how to respond to that. So she didn't. She just nodded as if that was normal and tried not to think about it.

Harry took care of stuff for her after that, so it was fine. He apologized to the elf for his loss, but not his actions, and ended up sending her to the elder Malfoys, whom the elf liked.

The rest of the elves seemed to try to make up for their one bad egg, so they ended up having getting much too much food from them. Each one of the little elves would bring a different food and set it down at their table until Leah could barely see over the food at Harry.

He smirked at her, "Enough food for you?"

Rolling her eyes, she began to eat. It was the greatest thing that she had ever tasted in her life. Each and every dish was better than the last one. It was almost a constant orgasm in her mouth. And with how much she could eat, multiple orgasms was an understatement for what her taste buds went through.

Thankfully, she managed to keep the contented noises quiet and lady-like. The conversation was also fairly one sided. She was much too busy eating to talk back, but he seemed to realize that. He went on telling her all about Dobby. Dobby the house elf.

It was a fairly sad, moving story, especially when she heard of his sacrifice and thought back to the beginning. The little elf was completely abused, and still committed the ultimate treachery to do what he thought was right and told 'The great Harry Potter, sir' of the danger. She still giggled at that.

But it was fairly sad, how devoted the little elf was, and how hard he worked at trying to help Harry. The amusing things that he did, like stopping him from getting on the train, all those misguided things, seemed very sad to her in hindsight. How much of his effort and life was mostly in vain, because of all the restrictions on their kind. His sacrifice was even more moving because of how he was so happy in the end, helping Harry.

She wasn't ashamed to say she cried a little.

Well, _in theory_. Theoretically, she wasn't ashamed... but yeah. She would never say she cried.

That's when Harry tried cheering her up by talking about the little elf's love for socks. He had made her giggle and think about something else other than the sad story. She didn't forget it though, obviously, because she cherished hearing all of his stories. And what a story it was! Harry's life, she decided, was the most complicated, dramatic thing she'd ever heard. And she loved it.

It was like listening to the old men who met the most famous bands back in the seventies or something. Except he was the same age as her.

The whole time he talked though, she kept eating. Even through the sad parts, she was crying while still stuffing her face. That's how delicious it was. They didn't finish the food, but she did try every last dish, and each was just as delicious.

After that, and thanking the elves extensively, they went back outside the castle again, making sure to go through a different passageway – and it was so _fucking exciting_ – and then they went back to the little town. They got some magical ice cream, which was ice cream that didn't melt and changed flavors every few seconds in your mouth. You could choose three different flavors and they would mix them into one for you. Leah was on cloud nine with her imprint, food, and exciting magics that he would explain to her. He really knew her too well.

Harry was a bit fidgety around crowds, but she was warned that he was famous, so that she should be prepared for that. Nothing could prepare her for just how cute it was when a couple of little kids came up to him and asked for autographs.

It was his face, she decided, that was the funniest thing. It was a bit scared and embarrassed, and looked at her desperately as if she could – well, more like _would_ – help him out.

She didn't, of course. It was much too cute.

"Harry Potter!?" a little boy that looked about seven ran up to them and blocked their path. When they didn't answer because of the suddenness, the little boy crossed his arms and glared. "You could answer y'know! It's not that hard!"

Leah snickered and looked at Harry. He sighed and put on a fake smile. It probably fooled the kid though. "Yes, that's me, what's your name?"

The kid's face instantly turned from grumpy to awed. It was hilarious how he forgot that he had just yelled at Harry. "Ma-"

"Matt!" a little girl that Leah was pretty sure was his sister ran up to him, stumbling a little on the way. She was wrapped up in the cutest little pink jacket that still looked much too big on her. She usually didn't like kids that much, but this one seemed a bit shy once she saw Harry and Leah. Shy kids were cute.

"Matt!" she yelled again, although he was already looking at her - and a about foot away. "Mum callin'" she pointed back to where a lady was walking toward them, looking very harried. The little girl noticed that Leah and Harry were there and staring at her, so she shrank a little and grabbed on to her big brother's arm.

Before her mom got there, her brother got angry, probably at being interrupted, and yelled, "wachu doing here!" raising his one good arm, since the other one was held down by his sister. The little girl shrank a little more, getting even more shy, but didn't let go of his arm. Leah almost wanted to stand up for her.

"Sorry about that," the mother said, huffing with exasperation, "I don't know why he just ran at you like that..."

"He's Harry Potter mum!" the little kid yelled, much too loudly for how close they all were. Harry started and looked around apprehensively. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying much attention.

The little girl though, gasped loudly and looked at Harry with so much awe that Leah almost felt like she should stake her claim. She recognized that it was bad, when she saw five year old little girls as potential rivals. Harry just fidgeted, too uncomfortable to discern from her face what was going on in her head.

"Well, I'm sure that he's busy right now, honey. He looks like he's on a date, so we shouldn't bother him," his mother told him sternly, but she did glance at Harry a couple of times in wonder as well.

"But mum!" he immediately pouted. Leah snickered, which the little boy caught, because he turned to her angrily. "Why would he want to be with _her_ anyways. Girls are stupid."

Oh _hell_ no. Leah put her hands on her hips and glared right back at the little boy. She didn't take shit from anyone. Plus, that brought her back to kindergarten when she had to kick little boys in the balls because they called her stupid.

_Nobody_ called little Leah stupid.

"Girls are not stupid," she bit out. She saw Harry sigh and look at the boy's mother apologetically, but the mom just smiled amusedly. Girl power, that's right. Even the little girl was looking at her admiringly.

"Yuh huh!" the little boy told her immaturely. Leah had to clench her hands to stop herself from retorting in the same way. That didn't say much for her maturity level. "All girls are weaker than boys, it's the truth!" he exclaimed.

She opened her mouth to tell him how girls rule and boys drool, but Harry beat her to it. "Actually, mate, Leah here is stronger than me," he smiled at the little boy, "it's terribly embarrassing sometimes," he winked. He seemed much more comfortable now that the attention was away from him being Harry Potter.

"What?" the boy asked with his mouth open, while the little girl giggled. "No way!" was all he could say. "I don't believe you!" he exclaimed stubbornly.

"Really. Look," so Leah put an arm around Harry's side and then shifted the other way, lifting him up like luggage. His eyes popped out a little, also saying a little _oomph_.

Both of the other females giggled at him, and Harry pouted good naturedly. The boy looked at her appraisingly. "I guess you're not too bad," he told her, and she guessed she could forgive him, at least until he kept going, "for a girl." The boy was going to be a chauvinistic pig, she could tell.

She was about to start her feminist speech about how women could do everything that men could, and how they were actually the superior species since they statistically did more work than men(she didn't know if it was true, but men masturbate much more than women, so that meant less time for work), when Harry tried the sensible approach. She still thought they should have done the feminist speech.

"Mate," Harry started, probably acting like friends so that he was more likely to listen to him, which was smart, in a way. "Someday, you're going to like girls, and you're going to regret thinking that girls were stupid, trust me," he told him exaggeratedly. "Plus, you have nothing to lose by being nice to them. If you're nice to your sister here, I bet she won't ever tell on your or anything," he winked again.

The little girl smiled at Harry and looked at him with even more star struck eyes. That made Harry start fidgeting even more than before. Leah thought it was about time they moved on, she didn't like her imprint feeling _that_ uncomfortable. Unless she was the one teasing him.

"Well," she started out, looking at the little girl, "did you know that Harry positively _loves _hugs?" She looked at Harry with the most innocent eyes she could. The betrayal in his eyes was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Even the mom snickered at him.

"Really?" the girl asked so hopefully that she saw Harry wince.

He was quite gracious about it though, and crouched down, putting a knee on the ground. The girl immediately launched herself at Harry, trying to wrap her tiny little arms around him. It was terribly cute. It also made her a bit emotional, seeing Harry with a kid. She tried not to think about that too much though. She just watched Harry contentedly as he hugged the little girl.

As they were walking away, Leah sighed, "I hope I taught the kid a lesson about saying girls were weaker."

Harry just laughed at her. "What lesson? You just fought with him!" he said.

"What? Really?" she asked him confusedly. "I thought I told him about how he was going to regret it and that he should be nice to her sister..." she said.

"That was me! I said that!" he said, feigning outrage.

"Huh," Leah said and scratched her head. "Well, as the woman here, I can take credit for anything you do," she nodded.

Wisely, he conceded that point, and they kept walking. He wanted to show her the joke shop next.

* * *

Hermione was having a wonderful time with her husband and her best girl friend.

They had even made progress on the Harry front.

At first, she had to fight alone, since Ron was actually more of a hindrance than any kind of assistance in Ginny's recovery. Really, she should have seen it coming. Hermione could predict what people would do reasonably well, if they weren't Ron or Harry. With Ron she couldn't predict when they would get in an argument, or anything like that, which she actually absolutely loved. She always felt so in control over everything, and Ron took her out of her safety zone, it was something she needed.

Harry's life was just too crazy for her to predict. Hermione sincerely wished Leah good luck with him. Plus, he would almost always go with the first idea that popped in his head – he _was_ getting a little better, but it was still his trademark – and half the time, his ideas were completely illogical.

How they almost always worked out for him, she'd never know.

But eventually, Ron acquiesced, and started trying to cheer Ginny up with food and quidditch. The Weasleys were a very easily satisfied lot.

They also had some wonderful, and some not so wonderful, surprises there at the restaurant. It had looked like half their class was there, but of course that was only at first sight.

It was just Malfoy and his girlfriend, and the rest of Harry's dorm mates, all with their girlfriends. Seamus with Lavender, Dean with a girl tiny Ravenclaw girl if she remembered right, and Neville with Hannah Abbot.

Once they saw the three Weasleys, they all wanted to join. What was truly Baffling, was _Malfoy_ wanting to join. That made Seamus and Dean, discreetly, of course, leave for another place, their girlfriends in tow.

So now it was Neville, who kept shooting strange glances at Malfoy, and his girlfriend that joined them.

Really, Malfoy must have warmed up to Harry or something, because he would have never joined them before. She watched him curiously and saw him smirk at Ron, riling him up. Okay, maybe he hadn't changed that much.

Then she glanced at her left and winced sympathetically. Everyone but Ginny was there with their lovers. It was quite sad, but Hermione felt it was vindication, really. She had told Ginny over and over that she wasn't appreciating Harry as she should have been.

At least she knew that Ginny wasn't trying to hurt Harry, she just genuinely wasn't ready for more. But Hermione also knew that going to all of her Harpies parties and leaving Harry alone during the weekends wasn't really helping her get ready either, something that Ginny dind't quite get. If she did get it, she had decided that the parties were of the more immediate importance. Hermione could somewhat understand... the glamorous life – although in the small magical community glamorous was a bit of a stretch – was hard to refuse. She could understand _how _it happened, but she couldn't exactly sympathize or agree.

If she had even suspected that Ginny was doing any of it on purpose, she would have hexed the ginger to a coma. She loved Harry more than almost anyone. It wasn't even until she got engaged to Ron that she set her relationship with him above Harry's friendship. Even now, it really wasn't that much higher, although once she had her baby and Harry's relationship with Leah went along more, that would probably change.

She didn't have romantic feelings for Harry, she'd known that since about fifth year when she was sure he wasn't going to have any feelings for her. It was a mix of friendship and sisterly love. Even a bit of maternal feelings, because she had seen how starved for affection Harry had always been. All three of those, fueled by how much Harry was always in danger, mixed into a fierce protectiveness for Harry that she'd be lucky to have for her own child.

And just like a mother would, she'd thought she would never approve of any of his girlfriends because they'd never be good enough, or want to protect him as much as Hermione did.

Then she met Leah, who quite honestly had her beat in that regard. She'd never thought it was possible, Hermione felt her protectiveness over him was equal to none. At least until she saw with her own eyes how Leah would always have Harry in the corner of her eye, always tracking him to make sure he was fine, always ready to do anythign he needed.

She watched Leah offer help Harry with a lot of little things, but somehow not come off as clingy, smiling at him happily when he wanted to go outside with Ron and fly, even if that left her alone with Hermione or if it wasn't what she wanted. Leah had it down to an art form – a balance that Hermione had never been able to achieve. Leah would offer help, but never twice. She would insist when he was being ridiculous, but not when he was just being stubborn. On top of all that, she had a playfulness to her that would make everything seem brighter.

It all boiled down to how concentrated Leah was on Harry's happiness; which was the most important thing, after all. No matter what happened, what they talked about, how suspicious Ron would be on their friendship or anything that made Harry frown, Leah would fix it.

Even with all her intelligence, Hermione knew wouldn't be able to pull that off. She had known back then that Harry would break up with Ginny and go with Leah, so she supported Leah to speed things up. It had just been a matter of time.

So while Hermione _did_ feel a little bad about Ginny, she completely supported Harry's decision.

"So," Malfoy said, probably to say something to rile up Ron, "where's scarhead?"

And based on Malfoy's smirk, he knew exactly where he was. Hermione had always thought that the Slytherin had no sense of restraint, unlike what the house was supposed to represent.

"On a date," Ron bit out, becoming irritated again. Hermione sighed, knowing this meal was ruined already. She wracked her brain for all the techniques at dispelling arguments that she knew, to try to figure out a way out of this situation without upsetting anyone. Or at least minimizing them.

As she was thinking, she saw Astoria look at Ginny with a bit of sympathy as well. The girl was actually fairly nice, much better than Parkinson at least. If had she cared about Malfoy at all, she would have approved. As it was, if she ever had to invite Malfoy anywhere, insisting he brought his girlfriend would only improve things. Something to keep in mind.

After analyzing everything she knew, barring the more outrageous actions like faking an illness, she decided on a simple distraction technique. She would get Malfoy and his girlfriend to talk about a date they went on. It was on topic, so she could transition smoothly, and if she appealed to Malfoy's inflated ego, she could give him something he found more interesting than upsetting her husband.

"Yes, I don't know where they went," Hermione started out, giving herself an opening to ask Malfoy about a place that he knew in his vaunted pureblood knowledge(she thought this sarcastically), "I wanted to suggest a place for him, but I'm not that well acquainted with the wizarding world that much," she could see Ron look at her incredulously, and Ginny in understanding. She would explain to Ron what she was doing later. "I realize that you know this subject more than me, Malfoy, could you – oh!"

She blinked, feeling a weird sensation going from her magical core and brain, to her stomach. Or at least what felt like where the baby was. She held on to her stomach instinctually, feeling for it again.

She blinked again. It felt like her magic did something... what would it do to her baby?

"Hermione?" Ginny asked her.

"That felt weird, my magic did something," Hermione told her.

"Does it feel like it's going to your baby?" Astoria asked her. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in thought. It did actually feel like that.

"Yes, I think so..."

"Your magic must be feeding your baby then, it's not going to be a squib," Astoria smiled at her.

That was good. Hermione kinda wanted a magical baby. It would be nice to teach it stuff. Like reading... and stuff.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah..." Hermione looked around. Everything felt fine, nothing felt weird. Well, almost nothing, she was hungrier than before. And she _really_ wanted Ron's food. It just looked so much better than hers. "Gimme that, Ron." She traded plates with him.

"Whu? No! Give me that back!" he complained. But she wasn't listening, because his food tasted _so good._

"Err.. Hermione?" Ginny asked her hesitantly, then sighed. "Are you crazy again?" Ginny asked resignedly.

Hermione frowned. She felt quite sane, thank you! Oh! She was talking about that magic from her brain thing. It was a complicated theory. She didn't want to think about that right now.

"Iuno," she said around her food. It was too good to put down. She also caught sight of Neville and Malfoy looking at her with wide eyes. Hadn't they ever seen a pregnant woman before? How rude of them.

She turned to the window to ignore them all and show them she was very displeased.

"Oh!" Hermione said excitedly. "Look! It's Harry and Leah!"

She turned back to look at the rest and see them as excited as her. She loved seeing friends on the street.

Except no one else was excited.

Well, Malfoy kind of was, he was just laughing really loudly. Ginny had her head on the table, so she _might_ have been excited, but without seeing her face, Hermione didn't know. Ron looked angry, and Neville just looked like he was very very confused, especially because he kept looking between Ginny and Harry. Did he not know that they had broken up? Someone needed to be better informed. Really.

She turned back to her best friend, Harry.

Oh, they were so cute!

"Look, Ginny!" she told her because Ginny was missing it.

"Hermione..." Ginny groaned without raising her head. "We just broke up _today_, are you really-" whatever she was saying, it didn't matter, because Hermione noticed something much more important.

"They're holding hands! Aw," she cooed. She loved seeing Harry happy. "Wanna go say hi, guys?" she asked them all, expecting agreements.

"Er, they look like they want privacy," Astoria told her gently.

It was true, and Hermione didn't want to interfere. She wanted Harry happy. She nodded thanks at Astoria – she was starting to _really_ like that girl - and went back to watching Harry and Leah. They looked beautiful together.

* * *

Leah was walking hand in hand with Harry. They had finally decided to stop for a second and sit down in front of a little restaurant that he had said Hermione loved.

There was a nice bench, next to some railing. Although it would have been hot to sit on top of the railing with him between her legs, they decided on the bench. It _was_ only their first date after all.

"So what do you feel like doing next?" Harry asked her curiously. "Anything at all, what would you want to do."

"I thought you were supposed to be the one that had this all planned," Leah smirked at him, but happy to do anything he wanted.

"Of course not," he answered easily. "We're just doing what we want, like always."

She frowned. This was not like always, it was a very special date, not any other day.

"Isn't this supposed to be like a super special romantic date with a toe-curling kiss at the end and stuff? Not just a regular day?" Leah asked Harry, only half jokingly.

Harry turned to look at her seriously. Much too seriously for the mood. "I don't want this to be a special date," it sounded offensive, but there was so much warmth in his eyes, and in how he treated her, that she could tell that wasn't how he meant it, "I don't want _dates_ to be special, I... I want all the time to be special."

It was romantic, she thought. Almost too romantic for their relationship, but Leah just sat there and listened raptly.

"I tried explaining that to G- My friends," she smiled at his slip up, although she was sure he wasn't technically lying. He probably did explain it to his friends as well as his ex. "Hermione is the only one that agrees with me... but only in theory."

"Why only theory?" she asked softly, not wanting to break his mood.

"She says it's not realistic," he smiled fondly, probably thinking about Hermione's penchant for logic that even Leah could see clearly. "'People need some special attention every once in a while, or else they become insecure in the relationship. You need to actively work at it,' she had told me," Harry smiled, shaking his head, "I don't believe that."

Leah didn't either, but only because of the imprint. Rationally, she thought Hermione was right, but the imprint kind of defied that rationality. It made the wolf appreciative of everything their imprint does. There would be no need for the imprint to do something special for the wolf, since the wolf would always think that their time together was special. They would never be complacent, they would always work toward their imprint's happiness. So from the perspective of an imprint, it'd be easy to think like Harry does, they were secure in their partner's love. Leah would never stop loving Harry, no matter how unappreciative he may turn in the future. So of course, Harry didn't need to think that dates would be special to her - every moment with him was special to her.

Except he'd apparently thought this before meeting Leah.

Plus, it was already common knowledge to everyone who knew Leah that Harry was perfect, so that definitely wasn't it...

"What do you believe then?" she asked him, more than anything because she couldn't find a way to put her feelings into words. She also took the time to get closer and lean against him. If they had to talk feelings and be all emotional, she'd at least get cuddles out of it. Though, it was obvious that she cherished every time he spoke his mind like that; she didn't actually dislike getting emotional if it was with just Harry.

But cuddles were always nice.

"It's quite simple, actually," he said with a grin that dispelled the serious mood a little, but not completely, "if we want to do something, then we should just do it."

Leah smiled back. "That's simple enough. So if you want to go on a date, then you just do it?" she smiled, a bit challengingly.

"Ah," he said, acting all wise, his fake voice making her giggle. "But, what is a date, my dear?"

She pulled a face at his acting, but thought about it nonetheless. A date was... "I don't know..." she shrugged, "movies, dinner, dancing, I guess. Stuff like that."

Harry's smile became victorious. "Exactly my point. If you feel like movies, you go to the movies. If you feel like dinner, you go to dinner... you get the point. Why the need to call it a date?" he asked her, challenging her right back.

She thought about it. She wanted to say it made it more special, but that was exactly his argument. It would only end in him smiling victoriously and probably some gloating. "I know!" she cried out happily. "It gives it a different mood. Like, it signifies that you can do stuff like kiss, and hold hands," she brought up their hands to show him the example, "and gives the whole thing a more romantic feel. So that you can hold hands throughout the dinner, instead of just eating breakfast before work and stuff." This time she smiled winningly.

She expected him to bow down to her superior logic, or at least grumpily concede defeat. What he did, though, was just look at her condescendingly. "And why can you not do stuff like kiss, or hold hands, or just eat breakfast and leave when you feel like it?"

Leah pulled a face, thinking she felt a bit like she was cheated. It was basically his same argument, only reworded."It makes it more special," she grumped stubbornly, going back to the original argument, even though he would be all victorious about it.

But he wasn't.

Instead he asked a question, "Which do you think is more special," he asked, pinning her with an intense gaze, making her pout disappear, "if I were to kiss you after a date..." she looked at him with wide eyes, her breath speeding up, "or if I kissed you every time we were to be apart for a few hours - if every time you went to patrol, I gave you a kiss to think about," he started to inch closer to her, his eyes smoldering into hers. "Tell me which you would prefer."

Leah stared back breathlessly. It took her a full ten seconds to get lungs under her command again. Her eyes were wide and couldn't close them even if she wanted to. He got even closer to her. "Would you rather have an amazing first kiss that you'll always remember..." she could feel his breath going straight to her nose now, making her even more light headed, "or not being able to remember it, because _each_ and _every_ last one of our kisses are just as amazing as the first?

She stared, wide eyed.

"Hmm?" he asked her in a hum, their noses almost touching.

The only thing that brought her out of her shock, was the small warning her subconscious gave her, giving her a passing thought about how much she'd be laughed at if she froze, especially after all the time that she wanted a kiss. She had day dreamed about it, even when her packs were phased with her, every day – practically hourly. They would never let her live it down. Hell, _she'd_ never let her live it down. Their first kiss... and she'd ruin it.

"The second," she stuttered out.

"Me too," he whispered. He brought a hand up to her face and caressed her cheek just a bit. "But," he suddenly said cheerfully, fully opening his eyes, which she just noticed had started to get hooded, "since this is a date, I guess you'll have to wait for a regular time," and with a last grin, he got up and started to walk away.

Leah gawked at his retreating form, her whole being protesting. All she could think was: _foul_! It took her a few seconds to get out of her shock, her mind screaming at her that she should not just let him do that.

That shit was _so_ not cool.

She got up and stalked over to him. However, just as she reached him and was about to unleash a torrent of profanities his way, he turned around and grabbed her face. Shocked once again, she didn't react when he touched her lips with his. She could only stand there like an idiot while he grabbed her lower lip with both of his and very lightly tugged on it. The pleasure of it would have probably frozen her anyways, since she felt her eyes want to roll to the back of her head.

And just from a kiss! She was quite frankly a little scared to do more.

He pulled away from her, and she finally told herself to stop being stupid, and to finally _do something_. She grabbed his face with both her hands and brought him back, putting everything into the kiss. She put all the love she'd had, all her gratefulness and devotion for how much he healed her, all the disire and the outrageous amount of _need_ that she had every time she saw him but couldn't touch him; she put all of that into the kiss.

While all of that went through her mind as she was kissing him, he had started to kiss back again, grabbing her waist with one hand and pulling her closer roughly, bringing their bodies together snugly. The other hand went to her other hip, but this one caressed rather than gripped, touching the patch of skin that wasn't being covered by her shirt. It felt like her skin there was even hotter than her normal one oh eight.

It was quite frankly a sacrilege that she'd gone the past weeks without doing this.

It was blasphemy. It was an insult to her _life._ Never again would she let it go that long without kissing him.

She moaned into his mouth and opened it a little, flicking her tongue on his lip ever so lightly, trying not to get too carried away, but already gone enough where she couldn't have stopped it. He instantly responded, touching just the tips together, but didn't try to deepen it more than that, neither of their tongues going into their others' mouths.

Their lips had started out dry from the cold, but they were wet now from their tongues coming out to play. She could feel Harry's cold face, and she pressed hers harder against his, trying to share warmth, and getting an appreciative moan from him.

Although, his moan was music to her ears, the position made it harder to deepen their kiss.

In a way, she was thankful for that. She always day dreamed about taking him practically anywhere, and even imagined all the different outrageous scenes that she would willingly do. But they were all just dreams.

Right now, she was very close to losing control and making them reality.

So she took her hands away from his chest, where they had been caressing him – and when had _that_ happened – and one down to her side to take some of the intensity away. The other went back to his face, to push away if she needed to.

She felt him push his forehead into hers and pull his lips away. When she opened her eyes, she found his hooded ones smoldering right into hers.

* * *

Hermione watched Harry and Leah contentedly. They were just so adorable, the way they were cuddled in a bit together, and talking with their heads close together. She was cheering for them to kiss.

And she had a front row seat to all of it! She grinned happily.

"Err, I thought you were dating?" Neville asked Ginny awkwardly, having not heard Ginny before.

"We broke up," Ginny told him dejectedly. "_Today_._" _She should get over it, Hermione thought.

"Oh," Neville fidgeted. "Isn't it a bit soon for him to..."

"Yes," Ron bit out immediately.

"No!" Hermione said vehemently, startling everyone. "You know Harry, this had very special circumstances!" Really, how dare they judge him.

"She _is_ hot," Malfoy agreed with her.

"Thank you!" she smiled at Malfoy. Really, how had she hated him for so long?

"Okay," Neville agreed with wide eyes. Of course it was okay, Harry never did anything bad.

Of course, Ron didn't agree with her completely. She'd always loved that he stood up to her, but not when it was about Harry. He was just dead wrong now. "Doesn't mean that he has to flaunt it!" he said. He was wrong.

Hermione just shushed him and went back to watching. Now they were putting their heads even closer, and Leah had her eyes so wide that it looked like they were about to pop out. Oh! This could be it!

"Look, look!" she told everyone, shaking Ginny a little to make sure she was watching the cute scene.

"I hope Potter doesn't screw it up," Malfoy said, shaking his head. Hermione whole heartedly agreed, nodding at him emphatically.

Then Harry put a hand on Leah's cheek and get whisper something. Leah looked like she as about to pass out, it was terribly adorable.

The urge to coo was there, and it was strong. She didn't fight it, cooing at awing almost constantly. She heard a choked sound from Ginny. She agreed, it _was_ so cute it was moving.

"Oh, oh," she said in suspense when they were about to kiss, "Aww," she groaned in tandem with Malfoy and his girlfriend, when Harry got up and walked away, leaving Leah looking comically startled.

Hermione giggled even through the disappointment. "I knew it," Malfoy said disappointed.

If she could say anything to Leah she would tell her to get up and chase him. Ginny sighed, it sounded relieved, but Hermione knew it was disappointed. Everyone wanted Harry happy.

Most everyone else was quiet, except for Ron and Malfoy. Ron was grumbling about how Harry better not kiss her, and Hermione found herself still strangely teaming up with Malfoy.

"Oh, come on Potter! That was a disgrace!" Malfoy groaned disappointedly. Hermione agreed with him again, nodding her head vigorously.

"Oh, oh, she's going after him," Neville said quietly from her side.

Hermione snapped her neck to watch again. Just in time to see Leah catch up to Harry. She rooted in her mind for them to kiss. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy and his girlfriend start to stand up to get a better view. It was a good idea.

She thought it would take them longer than that, but Harry immediately turned back and grabbed Leah's face, giving her the most romantic kiss Hermione had ever seen.

She jumped up and cheered loudly with Malfoy and Astoria, the three of them high-fiving over the table. Some of the other customers started cheering as well, everyone having followed their tables loud attention.

Ironically enough, her table was the only one that had people who weren't moved by it. Neville looked like he wanted to hide somewhere, and Ron looked angry.

All the girls had tears in their eyes, being just as moved as Hermione was.

Ginny wiped some of her tears with her hand, being just as happy as the rest. Except her face didn't look that happy. Hermione shrugged, people made weird faces when they saw romantic stuff.

"I'm going to kill him," Ron said angrily.

"And I'll kill her," Ginny said unexpectedly.

"What?" Hermione turned to her, surprised to see her angry. She thought Ginny had been happy... what happened? Oh! She was still sad at losing Harry... "Oh, get the fuck over it," she told both redheads, irritated now. "Either of you bother them when they're – oh and look, they're _still_ kissing, wow."

Ron made to move around her, but she brought out her wand, and pointed at them, and back toward the table, telling them to stand down. Ron looked like he might mutiny, but Draco – he'd earned it – brought out his as well with Astoria joining him, cowing them.

They had a lovely meal afterward, and Hermione got to look at Harry and Leah whenever she wanted, who were still cuddled up into each other the whole time. Hermione also made friends with Draco and Astoria, talking about Harry and how cute it was. Draco, of course, said it in more manly terms, but it was obvious – he thought it was cute too.

An inordinate amount of time was spent talking on that kiss, some other tables joining a couple of times. Astoria and Hermione swooning over it, and Draco saying 'It was acceptable, for a half-blood,' which coming from him was practically a glowing commendation.

She'd have to invite them over some time.

Ginny and Ron had eventually agreed that they might have overreacted, and that they were happy, reluctantly, for Harry. The two new lovers left right before they finished their meal, but it was probably for the best. She didn't want to interfere what was probably a perfect moment for them.

* * *

Leah had finally kissed Harry.

And it was everything she had been waiting for. All the months she had to wait didn't matter to her anymore, because it was that brilliant.

She wanted more.

But she could see him breathing hard, and still smoldering the full power of his eyes into hers, making her unable to move. Maybe she had forgotten that he needed to breathe more often than her.

Oops.

Breathless wouldn't be the proper definition for what she felt then, but she was definitely breathing just as hard as he was. For slightly different reasons. She did need oxygen, she wasn't a blood-sucker, but she could have gone another minute.

"You're brilliant," he laughed out on an exhale, his eyes clearing a bit, "just... just _brilliant_."

Leah flushed, but didn't take her forehead off of his yet. Her eyes_ were_ getting a little cross-eyed though, so with another peck – she couldn't help herself – she pulled away from him a bit so as not to tear his clothes off.

He helped though, by hugging her and pushing his face in her neck. It was much too convenient for her to do the same. His smell always calmed her down, or at least made her feel more in control.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, until she heard his voice.

"Is it always like that?" his voice was awed, full of wonder.

It made her heart race all over again.

"I can't imagine not feeling that with you," she admitted softly.

He nodded against her, and they fell silent again, comfortably wrapped up in each other.

She didn't know how long they were standing there for. She didn't even know when Harry ended up leaning against a railing, and her leaning against him. It could have been a few minutes, it could have been a few hours. She was way too content to keep track of little unimportant details like that.

She yawned. It was still early there, but everyone in Forks was definitely asleep by now. They'd been out for a while.

"Tired, huh?" Harry asked her, with his own yawn.

"Mhm," she hummed and leaned heavily against him again, overly exaggerating.

"Sleep," he said softly, and she could hear his smile on the next sentence, "I'll hold you all night." She recognized it from the first time they slept together.

"M'kay," she mumbled back, and leaned even more into him, digging her nose fully into his neck. "Love you," she mumbled sleepily.

The last thing she felt was him chuckling against her and a kiss on her temple.

* * *

Harry looked down at the girl that had very quickly become the most important thing in his life. The thing that finally gave that _meaning_ to his life. The one he'd looked so hard for. She was everything that he'd ever looked for in a girl.

At the beginning, he had been a little bit worried that she couldn't do magic, therefore might not be able to keep up with him. But if anything, it was the other way. He had found himself pumping magic into his body all the time, or using spells to cut corners, to try and keep up with her.

Even without all of that, he realized it would have been fine. She wouldn't have resented him being more powerful or anything that muggles sometimes hated them for. She didn't resent anything.

Now he had the trouble of carrying her back without waking her up. She was much too cute right now to disturb her, even though he knew she wouldn't resent him for that either.

He bit his lip in thought. The easiest way would be to transfigure her into something light and go through the portal again. Most people didn't like being transfigured though, it was a little disconcerting.

Harry looked down at her again, noting that she was drooling a bit on his shirt. Somehow, he found that terribly sexy. He wondered if she drooled a lot in wolf form when she slept, and when that had started to be one of his fetishes.

Fuck it, he thought, he put her in a deeper magical sleep, so as not to wake her up when he moved her and apparated close to the portal. He transfigured her into a small version of herself, being very careful, and carried her in his owl form, making it to his house in about five minutes.

He stopped at the counter to see a note that Malfoy left him, telling him about how his meeting with Amelia went. It said something about the Wizengamot, but he was thinking more about Leah than the note, so he didn't pay that much attention.

The gist was though, that he had to get up and go to the ministry tomorrow. Fun.

There was also a Wizengamot meeting tomorrow, one that he was actually required to join, if he wanted to get help protecting Forks.

At least he would get to cuddle with Leah tonight.

He set her down on his bed, transfiguring her clothes into pajamas, making it all silk. It wouldn't upset her, he knew, that he changed her. She trusted him as much as he trusted her.

Then he stripped down to boxers and a t-shirt and laid down next to her. She immediately clutched on to him, amusingly putting her mouth in the same place where she was drooling before, adding more to it.

Harry couldn't help himself, he kissed her again – drool and all - because of how adorable she was. Leah sighed contentedly in her sleep and mumbled something undecipherable. He kissed her again on the forehead and followed her in sleeping a few seconds later, feeling her burrow into him more.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Hermione didn't sleep much last night, with the baby kicking and the excitement of watching Harry and Leah. Therefore, it wasn't that much of a surprise that she woke up and promptly craved a cup of coffee.

Except they were out.

Being pregnant, she decided to use her get-me-any-food-I-want power on her husband.

"Ron!" she screamed as loudly as she could.

Nothing.

"Ron! Get me coffee!"

She waited, but nothing happened. She could still hear his snores though. Lazy bastard. Walking _all the way up the stairs_ – he was going to pay for that one – she looked on at his sprawled form.

No wonder he couldn't hear her, even if she screamed, it wouldn't be heard over the snores. It was actually quite incredible, how perfect the noise was at blocking other noises out; the perfect white noise. If it wasn't just so _loud_ it would even make a great patent. They'd argued about it, but once she brought up that he sounded like a chainsaw he started going off about muggle things being stupid - and she couldn't not defend them, that would be a sacrilege to her culture!

Well, she certainly wasn't going to waste her screams.

"Aguamenti."

Ron screamed and jumped up, trying to cover his head with his shirt, but Hermione just aimed lower, shooting the torrent of water at his stomach. He yelped and scrambled off to the bathroom.

"What the hell!" he screamed at her from the safety of being behind a door.

"I'm pregnant and I want _coffee_!" she shrieked back, much more loudly. She won, of course.

He got out and stalked off, grumbling, but went to do as she said either way. Satisfied, she moved downstairs and decided what she should do for the day. Reading didn't look as much fun as it used to. She was on maternity leave now, so she couldn't go back to work... but she could still go to the ministry. For what, she didn't know.

Maybe she'd see someone there who needed help.

* * *

_Harry was frustrated. The reason? He was at the ministry. Enough said._

_That's why he had to take extreme action. Harry had enough. _

_Harry was a man of action, not sitting around discussing Fairy Wing hunting laws. And that was the most interesting one yet! That was the only reason he could remember it. _

_So now, when they shut down his proposal, just like they did every other proposal, Harry went Berserk. _

_Not mad, not angry. Not even enraged. _

_Berserk. _

_He got up from his seat, everyone naturally falling silent, and looked at Dolores Umbridge in the eye. (She had somehow escaped Azkaban and was now the undersecretary again, Harry didn't know or care how.)_

"_Dolores Umbridge!" Harry boomed out, pointing at her threateningly. "I challenge you... to a duel!"_

_Gasps sounded across the Wizengamot, and then whispers after a few seconds. But Harry paid it no attention. _

_Because he had gone Berserk. _

_In one smooth move, he pulled his trusted Sword of Gryffindor that he always kept with him(How he got it back from the Goblins, he didn't know or care.), and pointed it at Umbridge. "Defend yourself!" He screeched in his long practiced war tones. _

_Umbridge looked comically startled, not having expecting Harry going Berserk. Once he got up close, however, Umbridge proved that she was as evil as he thought, by pulling out a hunting bow from her purse. That wasn't the evil part though. _

_No, the evil part, was the quiver full of blood quill arrows that she pulled out. _

_Thankfully, Harry had been fully trained in swordsmanship, so he spun his blade at a speed that few could match, striking all arrows out of mid-air._

_But he was tiring of this. _

Not physically... he could do it forever, but _mentally_. Or... more like emotionally? Hm...

Harry looked down at his drawing of Umbridge holding a quiver. It wasn't very good. He frowned, thinking that it seemed a lot better a few seconds ago.

Oh! He was growing weary! That's what he was trying to think of.

_Okay, so he was growing weary of the arrows, quickly becoming bored. So he did what any swordsman with any skill would do... he angled his sword perfectly so that the next arrow bounced off the blade, going in the perfect angle, and pointing right back at Umbridge, all within a split second. _

_His nemesis wasn't prepared, and barely dodged. She, however, had the brain of a toad, so she tried sending more arrows at him, with the same results. _

_It was only a matter of time before he hit her... but he had underestimated her, something he had promised never to do again. _

_As the last arrow was heading for her brain, she opened her two feet wide mouth, extending a fifteen foot tongue. The tongue immediately latched on to the closest person to her, bringing the screaming old fart(Harry didn't know his name) in the way of the arrow. Instantly killing him. _

_Harry howled in grief, naturally affected by any deaths around him, due to his ultra rare emphatic powers. _

"Potter!" he was brought out of his daydream, by the whisper-scream next to him.

"Huh?" he said to Amelia, who was glaring at him with a hostility only seen on the late Headmaster Snape. "I was listening," he grumbled at her.

"You were making stupid fucking noises," she hissed back.

He scowled back at her. The noises were not stupid. He looked down at his drawing, thinking Umbridge's looked... off. Oh! He had forgotten the bow that looked like a fly on top of her toad head.

Harry grinned and went back to the more important things.

_Once Harry had properly mourned yet _another_ life that was taken in front of him, he used his thirty core and fifty wood wand to make a grave for him. Then, he used his until-now-dormant veela abilities to bring all the women down from the stands, to help him against Umbridge. _

_Of course, he hadn't counted on them attacking his pants instead of his nemesis, but a hero had to deal with what a hero had to deal with._

_So, just on the nick on time, he found another long dormant ability. The ability to call spirits(he couldn't come up with a name for it) and called Merlin, Morganna, the four founders, the Pervell brothers, all the Dumbledores, and even King Arthur to fight. _

_He had forgotten to mention that he was the descendent of all of them, who had a giant magical orgy together, in which their D.N.A. mixed into something that would remain dormant, until he was born._

"_Now, my minions!" Harry cackled insanely, "Go forth and become Berserk! Ah!" _

"Potter! Give me that!" his drawing was snatched out of his hands.

He made sure to give Amelia his best hurt look that he could, to which she just glared, and crumpled up his drawing. He didn't have to fake his hurt look anymore... he had spent a lot of time on that drawing.

The last _two_ _hours_.

"You're _next_, Potter," Amelia hissed at him.

"That means I would have time for another drawing!" he protested. It was true, they took forever with each item on the list. But now that he'd been denied his drawing, he just day dreamed about what happened this morning.

He had woken up sweating, Leah clutching him close and drool all over his shoulder.

It really was worrying that he found it hot – err, sexy.

He was rather toasty too though, he would definitely not need a heater around her. Maybe he would work on his magic so that it would keep him at a right temperature. With all of the little things he used it for around Leah his magic was getting stronger.

Really, he thought he'd be lazy while he was at Forks and not try to get his full potential, but everyone had to make sacrifices.

It was a shame to have to leave Leah in bed and leave, but being responsible was never fun. He was also scared of how mad she'd be if he skipped the meeting that would help her tribe survive... yeah, probably mad.

So he reluctantly pried her fingers off his shirt – Merlin, shape-shifters have strong grips – and then tried slowly scooting away from her.

She immediately latched back on.

He hadn't seen anything more adorable in his whole life.

Okay, he took it back. She was now_ gnawing_ on his shoulder, with the low growling sound effects and everything, as if he was a dog bone or something.

As a rule, men weren't allowed to 'aw' at _anything_. Harry was, once again, proven right that there were exceptions to every rule. He cooed; quietly, but he definitely had just violated Wizard Rule number three.

There _were_, in fact, real Wizard Rules. There were seven if he remembered right...

* * *

Gryffindor Wizard Rules

By Gryffindor Men

**1) Don't make eye contact in the bathrooms. **No exceptions.

**2) Don't cry. **Exceptions: You are the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and just won the cup or a rule #7 violation.

**3) Don't coo. **No exceptions.

**4) Disown any Slytherin sons. **Squibs and Dark Lords are fine. Just no Slytherins.

**5) Don't ever admit you can't fly a broom.** This rule comes into effect after your first flying lesson.

**6) Do not ever report a prank on a Slytherin. **Any pranks that you purposely stop _will_ be shifted on to you.

**7) No hexing between the waist and knees.** Exceptions: Death Eaters and Slytherins.

* * *

There were a few others, but Harry couldn't really remember them. Plus, he probably broke most of them anyways. Well, that's another rule he broke. Looking at Leah, he decided he was okay with that.

After being unmanly for a few more minutes and contentedly watching Leah snore, he left the bed in a quick and sudden motion, so that she didn't have time to stop him. It was just as adorable when she reached for him and couldn't find him, going as far as pouting and crossing her arms, all without waking up.

Even in her sleep, she was a brat.

A brat he was falling in love with, though. Harry sighed, leaving her there was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Quickly, he left the room before he could change his mind, figuring he should write her a note if he wasn't going to wake her up. Even after he wrote the note, he only levitated it from the doorway, not walking inside as a precaution.

Although he _really_ wanted to stick it to her forehead, he decided that he would do that another day where at least someone would see the reaction.

Then he had gone downstairs and found Malfoy's note again, which he glanced over again, wanting to just get the Wizengamot meeting over.

The last thing he did before leaving was cooking her breakfast. He always cooked just as much as he used to for the Dursleys, since Leah could eat as much as that family combined. Funny, how different the feelings were when he cooked now; he had always been disgusted when the Dursleys ate a lot, but he found it adorable when Leah ate even more than them.

It was especially cute how she would try to have more manners when she noticed him watching her.

Not looking back, he flooed to the ministry. Noticing he was too early, he went to visit his boss, Amelia, and found her walking by. Curtly, she relayed to Harry that Malfoy had not informed her of the situation very well, so, understandably, she wasn't very happy with either of them. Because of them, her work got a lot tougher, so she wasn't really in a giving mood when he was concerned. It was better for everyone if he'd come back another day.

"Your trainee is a fucking retard and I had to deal with this shit because you were too busy playing with your dick. Fuck off, Potter."

As she left, she managed to give him the bit of encouragement that she had left in her, showing him that the auror corps were behind him one hundred percent.

"You better not fuck up the Wizengamot meeting too," she'd kindly told him.

He couldn't ask for a better boss.

She did seem a bit stressed, maybe she just needed to get laid.

A little red Leah with horns and a tail suddenly appeared on his shoulder. She then told him that he needed to get laid as well, and that she was more than willing, all the while pole dancing using his neck.

He groaned. She was even teasing him through figments of imagination now too!

After that, he ran into Hermione, who was all smiles and congratulations on the excellent kiss that he gave Leah last night, not explaining how the hell she knew about it. Her craziness seemed to be switching on and off between extremes now, instead of her early pregnancy easy to trigger irritation.

One moment she was all sane, asking him if he had his defense ready, and the next moment she was holding her stomach and grinning insanely at him. He tried asking her what was wrong and why she was holding her stomach like that, but she started going off about restaurants with shows, Malfoy and his girlfriend – even calling him _Draco_ – and then about planning his and Leah's wedding.

As a concerned friend, he made sure to conjure her a chair so that she couldn't harm herself, now that she had gone insane. Then he proceeded to _gently_ sit her down, ignoring her protests and cooing about who knows what, although he was sure it was about him and Leah. Then he conjured her a glass of water and put it in her hands, making sure she had a safe two-handed grip.

Since he was such a good friend, he did _not_ make her sit down so that she couldn't chase him when he ran away. He did _not_ give her a glass to occupy her hands, so that when she finally noticed he was running away, she would be that much more hindered. And finally, he did_ not_ point out something fake, so that she would be even that more delayed in noticing him running away. He didn't do any of that.

It just _looked_ like it.

That's how he ended up being early for his the Wizengamot meeting. He hadn't _wanted_ to be early, but he wasn't expecting Hermione to show up, either.

So for the first time, he had to endure people coming up to him and trying to chat before they closed the doors and everyone seated. He had gotten better at dealing with people, but nothing would make talking to people like the new Chief Warlock any better.

The bloke was a right tosser. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, was pompous as hell, and there seemed to be no logic to how he thought. How he got appointed, Harry had no idea.

Well, that was a lie. He knew exactly how. The guy was the oldest person there. That was a _horrible_ way to pick the Chief Warlock. Not only did it not guarantee a good fit, but it _always_ meant that the person speaking would have too much to say, speak too slow to say it, and often forget what he was saying mid sentence.

No wonder Hermione called the magical world backwards.

She also called it backwards because she was jealous that he got a seat while she didn't. Harry was _supposed_ to get a seat anyways, for being a Potter, but apparently it had been sold to the Diggorys by Dumbledore, who was the one with control of it as his magical guardian. When Harry had confronted Dumbledore's painting, it had explained that he didn't want it to fall in the hands of Voldemort, in case that Harry would die, which admittedly, was very likely.

Harry added it to the long list of well-meaning but fucked up things that his headmaster did.

He had forgiven him a long time ago though, and he couldn't really argue with the results. Voldemort was dead, and Harry was alive. No matter how many mistakes Dumbledore might have made, chances were, no one else could have planned Voldemort's defeat. So Harry was still thankful, grudgingly.

The reason for his current seat was the orders of Merlin, first class, that Harry and Hermione had gotten. It was utterly hilarious to him that Ron had only gotten a second class, not having killed any dark lords, or figured out as many important things as Hermione. Ron had tried to argue that he had destroyed a horcrux, therefore contributed a lot, but was shut down with the argument that Neville would then get one as well as Crabbe with the fiendfyre.

First class holders usually got to have a seat on the Wizengamot or, depending on how many there were, they were voted on from the current order holders. However, even though there were seats open, Hermione wasn't allowed, being one of the first muggleborn that was given that honor.

She had ranted about that for a good two years

Now he was sitting there, waiting for his turn to come up, not being able to draw, and keeping half an ear open for anything that he _should_ vote on. The fairy wings was the only thing he ended up voting for(he wanted them alive and not hunted. He did it for Luna) and the rest of the time, he day dreamed or drew imaginary fights.

It was his usual Wizengamot meeting.

He looked around the room, trying to see if there was anything interesting he could focus on while he wasted time. As a little kid, one of his hobbies – one of the few he was allowed to have – was people watching. He used to like trying to find anything unusual.

That room was extremely full of unusual characteristics. Even next to him, Amelia Bones had a monocle on her eye. He'd never found it funny before... but thinking about telling Leah about how his boss wore a monocle... he snickered, trying not to alert his boss he was laughing at her.

Then there were the veterans. Those were the people who actually made this their careers. Mr. Malfoy was one of them, as were his old crowd. Most of them ended up in Azkaban, dead, or just plain shunned.

But Bullstrode's dad was there, bitter about his daughter's death, still in league with Lucius. Bullstrode had actually been better _before_ the war, where he was neutral and didn't help Voldemort at all. Now that he had seen his daughter die fighting the death eaters, he was understandably bitter. He wasn't doing anything _bad_ per say, but his votes got a little more bigoted than they used to be.

Lucius was about the same as him. He had gotten better, but they basically just met in the middle. Lucius was still very much the arrogant, bigoted bastard... he was just less extreme about it. He was now against the harm of muggles, but he still thought that no muggleborns should be allowed to work at the Ministry.

He had a right to his opinion, or so Harry had been told... over and over. It was still bollocks to him, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Harry noticed the Chief Warlock stand up, meaning he was up next.

"Next order of business; Harry Potter has a proposal for assistance in the United States. Auror Potter, you have the floor," the old man said grandly.

Harry scoffed childishly. As if he needed permission.

So Harry stood up to his full height. Compared to when he was in school and under five feet, his height _did_ sometimes intimidate now. He looked at everyone dramatically, probably showing what a serious matter this was, and that he wasn't anyone that could be fucked with.

What he was really thinking, what that he should have prepared a speech or something.

He decided to do what he did best: Wing it.

He started with background, while he thought of more to say. "For those of you who don't know, I've been working at the U.S. Because of a serious vampire problem. The _Volturi_, the strongest vampire coven that's thirty strong,have mobilized for the first time in centuries, and have tried to enforce their own laws," he stopped and saw an opportunity in his speech to try to appeal to their egos.

"Laws that _we_ haven't written," he tried signifying that _their_ laws were the most important, and the ones that should be followed, not the vampires. He could see people starting to nod, starting to maybe care a bit.

"Gentlemen, I have been on this mission for two months now, and I have fought and _killed_ no less than thirty vampires," he announced to the shock of the people in the room. There were gasps and mouths being covered. He had only been slightly exaggerating. He _had_ seen thirty vampires being fought and killed... it just wasn't always him that did it.

"That's right. Thirty," he nodded to show he was serious. "We need to do something about this, and sadly, I can't do it alone forever, or else I wouldn't have come and asked for help," he made sure to act solemn about his duty.

"I am _not_ complaining about how much work it was, or how many late nights I've had to go and fight to save their town," he strategically mentioned everything, trying to sway even more votes. "I'm just worried that I'm going to miss one, and one day they're going to get through, killing the town's innocents."

He paused and looked at all of their faces, noting that some of them had fear on them. He could capitalize on that later, if it was needed. All he would have to do is try to appeal to their worst fears... bloodthirsty vampires running around killing their purebloods.

"If you were to send some help, we would be able to try to root out the problem," he spoke sensibly, making sure not to try to sound pleading, or they'd think he was a desperate beggar. That would be counter productive. "Without having _someone_ to go and try to find who's making all these vampires, not only is there a chance that they'll eventually succeed in killing someone in Forks... but we're not even thinking about how many people died making those vampires."

As was custom, no one spoke until he was finished, which he signified he was, by saying. "That's why I think we should send help. Thank you."

Malfoy stood up, showing that he would speak. "May I ask what the reason is for this influx of vampires in that specific town?" Harry was hesitant to say anything the Cullens, and Malfoy noticed it. "Surely, after two months being in this mission, you must have noticed _something_?" he asked, with a slight smirk.

"Yes, there _is_ something," Harry responded, glaring at Malfoy a little. Not enough to where anyone else would pick up on it though. "There is a family of vampires taking a permanent residence there, they share the last name Cullen."

A portly looking witch stood up, looking at Harry with a smile that was a bit condescending. "I think you mean _coven_, dear. I don't know what they're teaching-"

Harry broke protocol by interrupting someone, but to be fair, the witch broke it twice, by calling him_ dear_, which isn't either Mr. or Auror, and by insulting his training. Therefore, he didn't feel too bad when he did it. "No," he said, irritated, "I mean _family_." He saw the witch go to speak again, clearly thinking that he was just being stubborn on the terminology. "A coven, is simply a _meeting_ between vampires. It means that they have no ties to one another, only their mutual purpose, however long that lasts," he lectured the audience, who was actually watching with a pretty good amount of curiosity. "These vampires are _not_ a coven. They have familiar ties-"

A wizard that Harry remembered being a Voldemort supporter – only through laws though, nothing illegal – stood up, snorting in contempt. "How can those bloodthirsty beasts have any kind of familiar ties when they go and _bite_ people like barbarians-"

Harry again, didn't feel bad interrupting, since he_ was_ interrupted first.

"Actually, _Mr. Yaxley_," he spat out the name, showing plainly his disgust for the man. "They haven't killed a single human, nor bit any. They drink from animals," he announced smugly.

"This is all well and good," Malfoy's drawl reached him, startling Harry, having not paid attention to that side of the room in his stare-down with Yaxley, "but either way, I don't think that we should send help when they _are_ still vampires fighting other vampires."

"Of course there is!" Harry protested immediately. "There are people in _danger_, are you serious?"

"So we should put up our own people in peril?" Malfoy asked incredulously. "To shelter... what?" his voice turned mocking, making a show of repeating himself, "a few_ vampires _from _other vampires_." Malfoy scoffed and turned to everyone else, "I suggest we let them resolve their _own_ disputes, just like we do ours."

"What about our duty of you know you... _helping people in need_?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Those are not _people_," a middle age wizard said from the back, one whose name Harry had no idea, "they're vampires, _half-breeds_," he said contemptuously. Harry clenched his fist, containing his urge to get up and rant about Voldemort. "Besides, we shouldn't interfere with their private conflicts," he finished off, looking disdainful at having to even speak about this.

"What about when they die, which is enough of a reason to stop it in it of itself, and then the problem comes and attacks us?" Harry challenged. "This is _not_ a private issue here."

"Then we'll deal with it, and not a moment before," the wizard shot back immediately.

Harry couldn't control himself any longer. "So we're going to wait until they kill one of us?" he asked incredulously. "Really? What are we good for then, our aurors are currently playing babysitter at a _game_," he spat out, thinking about the Quidditch world cup, sickened at their priorities. "and you're okay with waiting until our people die?" his voice raised. "This is _exactly_ what you did when Voldemort came back!" he shouted out angrily, pounding his fist on the side of his chair.

About half of the room gasped – which, sadly, was an improvement – and then glared at Harry. For being the people who were supposed to look over their world, they were extremely cowardly.

Maybe he would do good to just move to Forks and never come back.

Forgetting all about this stupid wizarding world would be nice... if most of his friends weren't there. Although that was arguable as well, having made friends with most of Forks.

Still, he could never just abandon Hermione and Ron. Oh well, it was a nice thought.

"That is an extreme exaggeration, Mr. Potter," an elderly witch eventually scoffed.

"It's a definite possibility," Harry countered, "predicted by your most experienced auror," he glared at them all pointedly. Only a few of them showed any signs of feeling guilty, and even then it was only vaguely at best.

Harry took in a deep breath and tried reasoning with them.

"The point of the Wizengamot," he started out, admittedly a little aggressively, but only telling the truth, "is _not_ to disprove a report given._ If_ you have doubts about the _report_, then I advice you to put more effort into getting more evidence disproving it and make another one," he said in his most business-like tone. "You _do_, however, have one right now. One that you have _no_ reason not to believe. That's what you're arguing isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "You're saying that what _I_ predicted, as the most experienced here, is not going to happen."

He glared at them all, showing his displeasure at having to practically pull rank on them when it shouldn't have been needed.

"The real argument should be if you want what I predicted to happen _actually_ happen," Harry said authoritatively. "A full auror team has practically no chance at dying against even the most powerful vampires, especially one that is prepared beforehand, and I _would_ prepare them," Harry continued on, his voice becoming pleading. "So there is no risk to our aurors for doing this."

"Except for the fact that we don't _have_the aurors to give right now," Augusta Longbottom said, seeming apologetic. "Amelia, how many aurors do you have right now under your command?"

Harry looked at his boss pleadingly, hoping that she would help him there. He knew they were in a tight spot, and that the chances of her giving him any help without the Wizengamot would have been almost zero. However... he'd been working his arse off ever since he joined her, and gave her tremendous amounts of prestige.

Hopefully, she'd pay back his hard work.

Amelia looked at him first, her face showing nothing... until she grimaced at him. Harry cursed.

"I have only ten half-dozen teams right now, with about twice that number in trainees. A third of our aurors are teaching the trainees, with the rest on security," Amelia sighed tiredly. "Our trainees have been picking up the slack, especially with Auror Potter gone, who did about half of our work alone." She glanced back at Harry, and he thought she was trying to throw him a bone, "over half the security is working on the Quidditch World Cup. We could ask the other countries to pick up their slack and give off one team to Auror Potter."

There was almost mutiny at that suggestion. If there was two thing that most magicals never compromised on, was their Quidditch and making other countries look bad. Preferably about Quidditch.

"Preposterous!", "Why, I never!", "How _dare_ you?" multiple angry shouts reached Harry's ears.

He pointed his hand out to the ceiling and made the sound of a gunshot, instantly shutting everyone up. "How about we talk rationally?" he asked in a bored voice, trying to make them all look like the fools that they were. He couldn't really tell if it worked or not, but at least it made them quiet.

"Yes, yes," the chief warlock sounded out pompously in the silent room. "I very much agree with Mr. Potter. I suggest we vote now on this issue," he paused and tried to make the closing remark that was part of his duty. "Remember that Mr. Potter is a professional. _If_ you have doubts about the _report_, then I advice you to put more effort into getting more evidence. You _do_, however, have one right now. One that you have _no_ reason not to believe."

Harry gawked at the man. He had used the _exact_ same words that Harry had just used a minute ago. Harry wondered if he was writing them down, but then saw him glance at his scribe's paper next to him. Harry almost laughed.

_Almost_ being the difference, because when the overly pompous and clearly incompetent man said his same words everyone else nodded along, and behavior like that was truly worrying to have in the body that makes laws. How they even functioned was a mystery to Harry.

"So," the man said, now having to make up his own lines, "now we vote." He had tried to do a solemn voice, but it just made Harry want to laugh at him. Or punch him, he couldn't decide.

The worst part, was that what he said didn't even say anything about the actual _vote_, just defended a somewhat off topic argument that had been resolved – at least in Harry's opinion, since no one argued that point anymore. Harry ran his hand over his face.

"Everyone in favor of sending a _full_ auror team in command of Mr. Potter?" he asked and Harry strained to look back to see who would support him, putting his own hand up in the process.

He wasn't actually sure if his vote counted, not knowing if the proposal counted as his or Amelia's since he defended it but she filed it.

The votes were close to half, but seemed a bit less, he couldn't really tell. The Chief Warlock would know, his scribe's notes magically counting the votes.

"All opposed?" about the same amount of people raised their hands. A surprising amount must have abstained from voting.

"The motion is _not_ passed. Sorry Mr. Potter," the old man said sympathetically, and Harry felt his shoulders droop down. "Next order of business, brought up by Mr. Wilkins, is the new tax on unicorn hairs..." Harry tuned them out, obstinately ignoring everything.

The only time that he stopped sulking was to vote against anyone that he remembered voting against him. He didn't even know what he was voting on, he just vindictively tried to vote against the people that pissed him off.

It felt surprisingly good... Leah must be rubbing off on him.

When the meeting was finally over, he went to go storm off, but Amelia told him to go back to her office for a quick debriefing. He was tempted to just skip it and go back to Leah, but he decided it would probably be best to just get rid of it now, instead of having to come back.

He sighed and followed her.

In her office, she finally spoke again.

"I _am_ sorry about that, Harry," she told him, looking properly contrite.

"It's fine," he sighed, realizing that he shouldn't be mad at her for basically doing her job. He had wrongly been expecting special treatment, he just realized, and he didn't condone that at all. He was almost thankful that she didn't do any more now. "You're just doing your job perfectly, nothing else you could do," he said reluctantly.

"Thanks," she smiled at him, taking her usual hardness off her face. "I could tell this mission seemed important to you," she said, and Harry didn't miss the calculating gleam in her eye. She was obviously trying to figure out why he would go through all that trouble.

Well, he'd tell her most of it, he didn't really mind.

"Mostly what I already told you. A lot of people could die," he said seriously, and then added, "plus I really like the Cullens. They're _good people_," he insisted. "Still, I would've done this even if I hated them," he added on, and Amelia nodded in understanding.

"Alright," she agreed easily, "Well, I'm sorry about it still," she said apologetically again, but kept going before he could protest. "We need to talk about your next assignment though," she continued, unaware of Harry's paling face.

There was no way that he was going to leave Forks, not after meeting Leah. It was that simple.

"I can't," Harry cut her off.

Amelia looked at him, stunned.

Harry didn't think that anyone had ever said no to her, at least as directly as he did. That made him smile a bit, to be the first one to have done it.

Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, while Harry waited to see if she would yell at him. Thankfully, she didn't. She just stuttered out, "Wh- what?"

"I'm staying in Forks," Harry told her resolutely, not even pretending to think anything else over.

"But..." Amelia stared at him incredulously. "I get that you want to help, Harry," she said, obviously trying to stay patient, while clearly only wanting to pummel his face, "but staying over there... it'll do more bad than good. We _need _you here. Honestly, they'll fall apart without you here!" she said desperately.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at her, "I've been gone for two months and it's all been fine..." he said, a bit inquisitively.

Amelia looked away and blushed a little. "It hasn't..." she sighed and looked at him. "Two weeks ago..." she started off, looking reluctant to say any of this, even coughing to stall time, "well... we found one of the trainees trying to stage an attack against our veterans, turns out he was an old Voldemort supporter..."

Harry sat up straight, "Tell me you didn't lose him..." he asked her incredulously. For a _trainee_ who lived there and wasn't allowed to leave except for weekends to get away... that had to be some major incompetence.

"No, thank god..." Amelia sighed, shaking her head. "The _trainee_ injured three veterans before taking out your whole previous team."

Harry raised both eyebrows at that, and couldn't help but laugh. That was either one hell of a trainee, or his team got really _really_ bad all of a sudden. "How in the hell did _that_ happen?" he asked chuckling, something that Amelia did not take kindly, by the looks of her glare.

"Your _team_," she spat out, "refused to take orders from its captain."

"What'd he _do_ to them?" Harry asked her with wide eyes. His team had been extremely well behaved when he led them.

Amelia glared at him with a new kind of hate. One that said that this was all his fault, even from thousands of miles away. He wondered if he was reading her right, because to do that... it would have to be something really rare.

Though, knowing him, it was likely.

"Your _team_," she spat out again, they apparently were _really_ not in her good books at the moment, "practically _refuse_ to work under anyone but you," and here she glared at him again.

Okay, so he could see how it_ could_ be his fault... In the kind of way that he was at fault for Snape's bitterness. Just being alive.

He looked at her unimpressed, having been blamed for too much before to care about it happening yet again. "There's got to be more to it than that."

Amelia sighed, and reluctantly nodded her head. "It had already started out badly, but not unmanageable," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, "mainly they only complained that you were gone and that you were better than the new captain."

"Then..." Harry said encouragingly.

"_Then_," Amelia said, glowering at Harry all over again. It was getting old. "The captain insulted you, and your_ team_," she spat out again, and okay, it was starting to get a bit funny to Harry when she did that, "decided it was a personal affront to each of them, and they decided to attack him!" she ranted out angrily.

Harry couldn't help it, he snickered - right in Amelia's face. "That's hilarious," he grinned at her.

"No it is _not_ hilarious!" she thundered and got up, making him drop his smile, intimidated. "Three people were _injured_," she sighed sadly, sitting down heavily.

Harry knew that it was a very sad and serious thing... but he still had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from laughing. He fully blamed it on Leah.

"Do you want me to talk to the team?" he asked her, honestly just wanting to resolve this and go home.

"No," she glared at him, "You're _going_ to lead them again."

"Er," Harry stared at her, trying to figure out how to be nice about this. "I kinda quit... just so you know," he added on, trying to soften it. Tact wasn't really his thing.

Amelia stared at him with wide eyes and open-mouthed surprise, no longer looking confrontational at all. "You _can't_," she breathed out despairingly.

"I have to stay in Forks..." Harry shifted awkwardly, a bit fidgety because of Amelia's desperation. "I'm moving there either way."

"What the _fuck_, Harry?" she stared at him, not raising her voice. "What the _fuck_?"

"Sorry?" he tried weakly.

"Why are you doing this?" she wheedled, looking at him suspiciously as well.

"I have a girlfriend there now," Harry told her truthfully and shrugged his shoulders.

"You're quitting for a fucking _girlfriend_?" she gawked at him incredulously. "Not even a wife or anything, just a regular _girlfriend_, are you _serious_?"

"Yeah..." he shrugged and grinned at her happily, mostly just because they were talking about Leah. He always smiled when talking about her. "It's a little bit more than that though," he informed her, still grinning a bit, "we're bonded. Magically," he nodded, to her surprised expression. "Stronger than a marriage bond, too. Hermione had to do research on it."

"Okay..." Amelia said, obviously trying to process the information. "But you're still just a floo travel away!" she said desperately, now building up an actual argument. "It won't even take you longer to get here or anything!" she cried out accusingly.

He sighed and rolled his eyes a bit at how dramatic she was being. "Yes, but I'm also killing vampires there almost daily," he gave her a pointed look. "I'm not doing twelve-hour days here and then get attacked when I arrive there."

Amelia fidgeted and visibly restrained an outburst. "How about you..." she started, probably not even knowing what she was going to say when he started talking. This was proven true to Harry when she opened her eyes in surprise, obviously just having thought of an idea. "How about you only come a few hours a week to teach! And one mission every once in a while, so that they can know that you're still here!" she cried out, pointing at him.

He thought the pointing was supposed to mean that he couldn't refuse it, but it just looked kind of silly.

He snickered at her. "You can't be that desperate, Amelia," he shook his head at her.

"But I am!" she cried out suddenly, with her hand reaching across the table to clutch at his – he pulled it out of her reach reflexively - even going as far as throwing all the papers out of the way.

Harry stared at her incredulously, completely taken aback at her demeanor. This was a woman that took pride in showing herself as strong, never begging or anything, and always keeping her cool...

She just disproved all of those misconceptions to him in about a second.

"If you leave..." she cried out frantically, "if you leave they'll think that it was my fault! The aurors' fault!" she clutched at the sleeve of his shirt, making him fidget in discomfort. "If you leave, everyone will undermine us," she stared into his eyes imploringly. "_Everyone_!" she shrieked out suddenly, making him cringe.

"Err..." he stuttered out, being too confused to say anything.

She took that as denial, apparently, because she jumped off, throwing even more things off the table. Now she was standing about three feet away from her desk, and glaring at him hatefully. She didn't glare at him in the way that she used to, either, where he felt like a small bug or like she was trying to freeze him with how cold the stare was... no, this time she had the full furrowed eyebrows, crossed arms below her chest, and pout.

It was completely Leah's fault, he knew, or maybe Emily's, but he wanted to coo at her.

Something told him that might finally be the thing to kill him if he tried.

"Fine!" she grouched, "but when death eater sympathizers come and attack headquarters because you left," she nagged petulantly, it was awfully cute, "then you'll have to live with it!"

He thought about it, expertly ignoring her attempts at guilt tripping him. Truthfully, there wasn't much keeping him there. He had all the money he wanted, the prestige that came with the job was actually a _con_, not a pro... the only reason that he previously worked there was the feeling of achievement. Ht took _pride_ in his work. Helping people, stopping criminals before they were able to make a negative impact on the community.

_His_ community.

That made it more than worth it... but wasn't that what he was doing in Forks? Protecting people and killing vampires. As an auror, he used to catch a criminal or two a week, and that was practically doing half of his department's field work. But those were criminals, not murdering vampires. Nine out of ten of those criminals were petty thieves, smugglers, tax evaders... not exactly mass murderers.

During his stay in Forks, he'd killed _at least_ two vampires a week, and the Quileutes killed more than three times the amount that he did. Last he heard, Jacob was actually ahead of him in kills, being the Pack's leader, with Leah in second as the first on the scene.

She liked to brag that her speed was just that amazing, but the rest of the wolves were just slow. She still argued that she could run faster than he could fly, but he kept up with her just fine the time he saved Courtney from the wolves.

Such a sore loser.

Snapping back from his increasingly frequent Leah-Day-Dreaming – he had to give it a name, with how often it happened now – he kept pondering his predicament.

The vampires that he was fighting now, each killed probably hundreds of humans. That meant that he was saving around a thousand humans a month by staying in Forks. But that wasn't a very good conclusion, to be honest. The wolves and Cullens would probably do fine without him, most of the time.

The main issue with quitting would be what would happen _after_, when they finally solve the problem of the vampires and they finally get to the root of the problem. He would feel useless again.

True, he would be more than happy just living with Leah... but he wasn't one to sit around all day. He _liked_ helping the wizarding world, just like Leah tried to tell him. Plus, it wouldn't be so bad to keep working only a few hours and have the job basically on retainer. He could always quit if he changed his mind.

_And_, it would be great teaching again. He missed it. Maybe he would even try to pass on the corruption in his brain that Leah was infecting him with.

He could probably train a whole platoon of cheeky aurors. He could just see it now, all the aurors harassing Amelia, all aurors on minister security duty commenting on how he's fucking up... he'd probably get them all fired. He would get Leah to think of something cheeky, she was much better than that. Or maybe he'd come up with something better later, under pressure. He could do that.

He nodded to himself, he would keep the job and slowly take over the ministry.

"Fine!" he sighed out dramatically, making her look at him hesitantly. "Fine, I'll do it," he announced, causing her to smile widely, and making her look a couple of decades younger. "But I want a schedule that's _very _flexible," he warned her.

"Whatever," she waved her hand impatiently. "I'm going to be giving you mostly solo assignments then, except for the teaching," she pondered out loud, biting on the end of her quill. She snapped to him suddenly, "What's your excuse for taking so much time off, if anyone asks me?"

"Family issues," he replied smoothly.

She nodded happily. "Perfect," she praised. "You might want to talk to the press about your new girlfriend or whatever she is-"

"Soul-mate," he interjected all dreamily.

"_Really_?" she grimaced, looking a bit disgusted.

"What?" he asked her, self-conscious. "It's the truth! There's soul magic in the bond!" he protested.

"So?" she shrugged it off, still looking like the corniness personally offended her children. "It could be anything..."

"Yeah, well," he countered unintelligibly.

"Whatever," she waved it all away again, "I'll floo call you-"

"Ooh!" he interrupted, seeing an opportunity. "Can you get her floo access across the international wards?" he asked her excitedly. It would be the icing on the cake if she could come with him when he visited England any time. She could go to Hogwarts without sneaking in, and she could visit all of his friends... and doing it all with her would pretty much make it all a thousand times better. Merlin, even having to hug the little girl on their date was bearable when he caught the wistful expression on her face.

Amelia looked unimpressed at him, probably thinking that he was abusing her position - and patience - with him.

Which, really, he _was_... but still. Leah was much more important than Amelia's patience.

"It's fine..." Harry shook his head, not even bothering to act contrite, but smiling widely instead. "I understand," he nodded all seriously... with a smile. The one he wore when he was about to piss people off. "I just _thought_... that it would be more likely for me to come to England more if I could bring her with me..."

She looked pissed off already, probably signaling that he should stop.

He had been spending _way_ too much time with Leah for _that_ to work.

"Also..." he continued, "I wouldn't want to go back _home_," he stressed the word ridiculously long, "in _Forks_, as much, if I didn't have so much more to go there for... you know with the most important thing of-"

"Fine!" she yelled out, pounding a fist on the table angrily, "You blackmailing piece of shit!" she pointed accusingly.

He grinned victoriously. He didn't even _want_ to deny it. "Thank y-"

"Fuck you!" she glowered at him.

Harry just laughed delightedly, having a new appreciation for annoying people. He had an extreme urge to go back and kiss Leah and thank her for making him better.

"Is it your girlfriend that's making you this obnoxious?" she asked him sullenly. He smiled and nodded, opening his mouth to speak. She interrupted him again. "I don't care," she told him crossly, "just tell me her name so that I can add her to the access... thing..."

He looked at her amusedly. "Access list?"

"Fuck your list, Potter," she snapped immediately, "it's your fault for making me so cross that I can't remember words," she sulked again.

"My bad," he cheerfully apologized using lingo he got from the shape-shifters, and getting a warning glare, he tried to pull back on the happiness a bit. "Leah Clearwater."

She nodded and pointed out the door, silently telling him that his work was appreciated and that she would call him when his good humored disposition, something that was invaluable, would be needed again.

"Get the fuck out," she demanded two seconds later.

Same thing, really.

Merlin, he thought, Leah was even making his _thoughts_ cheeky now.

He couldn't wait to see her.

* * *

Leah woke up, feeling better than she had in a _long_ time. Almost as good as the first day after she imprinted. That morning had been _glorious_, she remembered.

It had started just like every other day, waking up in her too-small bed, her limbs routinely hanging out of it in some direction.

There had been one small difference though: she had been clutching a pillow.

Most people would think that it wasn't that big of a difference really... but it was a _huge_ difference to her, once she discovered it. That was because it had been a long time since she had cuddled anything at all. The only time that she woke up clutching a pillow before that had been when the pillow was destroyed, the feathers having flown all over her room, having had a nightmare about Sam.

But this time... she had been _snuggling_ with it. She had looked at the pillow as if it was an alien or something contagious. Then she did the same with her arms, which had been holding the pillow tightly without any kind of scratching.

It had taken her a few seconds, but she eventually remembered what happened. It was because she reflexively thought of Sam when she woke up, just like always. She had been advised to try to not think of him at all before, but it only backfired, making her actively try to avoid it in her mind and only focus on him in the end.

But that time, she didn't get any of the pain. She had snapped her eyes open in surprise, feeling just _amazing_. And then she remembered everything that happened, and _Harry_.

_Harry._

She had stayed in bed for almost an hour that day, just going through everything in her head again, and just _reveling_ in the happy feelings. She almost cried in happiness.

Although after a half hour, she bolted straight up, remembering that she could go and _see_ him. Her imprint, she could go and see him. She bolted out of there, ripping her clothes off as she phased.

That had been an amazing morning.

This morning, there wasn't that acute overwhelming _relief _that had come with getting all your pain taken away, but this was the glowing happiness of an amazing date that had just happened the night before.

She thought this would be a lot like a morning after sex, only not as intense.

There weren't really any of those glowing mornings after with Sam when she'd been with him, since something usually got in the way of that. Either they were sneaking around at night, trying to finish quickly before their parents got home, or in an uncomfortable car. Even dates had usually been like that.

Without all that though... the dates hadn't been nearly as good. She didn't bother even thinking about Sam's dates, because last night... last night was perfect. And the comparison would only make her feel foolish for wasting the time.

She sighed all dreamily and grabbed at her pillow to cuddle with, when she finally got herself out of her head a bit and recognized the smell around her. It was Harry's smell, in an _extremely _potent concentration.

It was probably why she'd found it so easy to start day dreaming.

She snapped her eyes open and looked around, just realizing that she'd slept in Harry's room. In Harry's _bed_. She'd done that before that one time... but he still had a girlfriend then.

Leah felt along her body, disappointed that she didn't find it naked and ravished. It wasn't very clear what she was looking for when she was thinking ravished, but she knew she'd notice it somehow. Being ravished _had_ to leave some kind of lasting effect. Besides, her pajamas seemed fucking _ethereally_ comfortable, so he probably changed her clothes magically.

She wished he'd at least peeked. Difficult little imprint.

Maybe she'd just strip and stay in the bed until he came back.

Feeling the bed for him, even though she knew she was gone, she wondered where he went – and how she had instinctively known that he was gone. Though the last one was probably just the imprinting completely invading his privacy like always. She grinned at that thought.

Then she saw a note, it was hanging in mid-air above the middle of the bed. She stared at it suspiciously, thinking it might be a prank or something fishy. She decided to just read it.

_'Lo Lovely Looking Little Lady Leah,_

Leah a little cheater, 'Lo wasn't a word.

_I didn't cheat on the first one. You can't prove it. _

She rolled her eyes, but scolded herself at taking so long to read his note.

_I didn't want to wake you up, since you looked so peaceful. I'm sort of hoping that you'll be asleep by the time I get back, but if you're not: I saved you breakfast in the kitchen. _

_There's a plate, with a warming charm on it, so it'll stay warm. I password locked it, so that Malfoy won't eat it. The password is:_

_**Mimbulus Mimbletonia**_

_You just have to say it three times fast and it'll open. Don't read the rest until you've tried that at least ten times..._

_Okay, you peeked. Go back four lines, don't pass go. _

_Fine, fine, the password is:  
_

_**Boys rule, girls drool.**_

_I _know_ that you wanted to say that to the little kid yesterday, you can't deny it. _

_By the way, do you think anyone invented a drool fetish? Because I think I might have started one, hope you don't think I'm too weird._

_Anyways, I have to go the ministry, Malfoy will come by later and talk to the Wizengamot about getting help against the vampires._

_From what I heard so far, I'm probably going to come back with bad news. _

_Missing you, _

_Harry._

She read it a few more times and smiled dreamily, missing him already, which was just her constant state, really. Which made her think... he missed her too, now. She laid back on the bed, basking in the words of her imprint. Then she got up, already plotting on how to make him _love_ her now.

Well, at least for a few seconds. Then she got bored and started day dreaming about him again, going downstairs to get the food that she'd been promised.

She found it easily enough, and reluctantly saying the password – after checking that no one was around to hear her – she ate her delicious food.

It was already late in the morning, having slept for so long in his comfortable bed, so she decided to go back and talk to Emily. Best to get the squeals and coos out of the way now, before they built up.

* * *

Hermione, after coming back from the Ministry and seeing Harry – she would get him back for that - promptly looked for her coffee, finding out that Ron had gotten her some.

She was careful with the baby's health though, so she didn't want to drink more than one cup. Taking great care, she picked up her husband's thermo-cup, which was already somewhat full, and still warm. She knew Ron would get mad, but what was life without a bit of whimsy now and then? Even at her most logical, she knew that sometimes she had to do silly things.

The container looked like it was about a cup, but Hermione would take no chances like that. She picked up one of the large measuring cups, and methodically filled it half way with water, until it said two cups. She took the thermo-cup and dunked it until the coffee line. The measuring cup said that it had risen one point one cups.

Measuring the distance between the outside of the cup and the inside, she deduced that there was half a centimeter between them. Repeating that on the diameter of the cup – making sure to measure the biggest distance from any point, anything else would have been smaller than the diameter – she got _twelve _centimeters. That was only a _twelfth _of the radius of the cup that was taken out, not a tenth.

She wasn't called a bookworm in elementary school for nothing. Getting the areas from the inside and outside of the cup, she quickly deducted the smaller from the larger. Doing the math in her head, she calculated that after subtracting the result of the previous calculation over the larger area... the insulation took about sixteen percent of the cup area. That meant that the coffee only took eighty-six percent of the one point one cups.

So there was only approximately zero point nine five cups of coffee in her thermo-cup. Less than one.

Perfect.

She took it out of the water and proceeded to sip on it – after drying and heating charms, of course. It could use with a little less sugar, but that was a lot more difficult to fix than too_ little_ sugar, and that would defeat the pleasure of drinking something pre-made for you. So she decided that making the drink taste a little better would actually downgrade the overall experience.

She took another sip - she was getting used to the taste anyways.

The fireplace flashed. "Hey Hermione!"

She looked back and saw Ginny vanishing the soot off her clothes.

"Hey Ginny, how are you?" she asked politely.

"Eh, bored," she shrugged, and plopped down on her couch. "Practice got canceled, and I'm looking forward to sitting here and finally not going to see anyone!" she grinned.

Hermione smiled back, happy that her friend was getting over Harry. "Want some coffee?" Hermione offered, taking another gulp of hers. It was starting to warm her tummy a little, which was probably uncomfortable for her baby, so she decided to space out her sips more.

"No, thanks," she replied, but looked curiously at her. "Should you be drinking coffee... you know-"

"It's fine," Hermione interrupted, knowing what this was about. "I measured out less than one cup and I'm not going to drink any more, don't worry," she smiled reassuringly.

"Great," Ginny grinned back, picking up the remote and turning on Hermione's TV. Hermione sipped on her coffee and sat down next to her, nodding her head a bit with the show's theme song.

The TV wasn't actually a muggle appliance, it was something that George sold at his shop. It was an extremely brilliant idea, something that Harry came up with, but George produced. They had been talking about some kids stealing apples off of the Burrow's orchard, when Harry had laughed unexpectedly. When pressed on it, he had admitted that he was thinking about how his uncle would steal cable off of his neighbor to save money.

Hermione sipped her coffee and drummed her fingers, a bit bored with the show.

When Harry had told them about his uncle's stealing, Hermione had tutted predictably. At least until Harry shot straight up, and looked at George intensely. George, for his part, had gotten it much quicker than Hermione had, and gasped loudly, pointing at Harry. Harry, being unusually unreserved for a moment, had grinned and pointed back.

Hermione smiled, thinking about how completely unreserved Harry was now. It was an extremely pleasant change. He seemed more active too, making everyone around him feel more energetic. She herself was tapping her foot now too, still drumming her fingers, just thinking about him. She smiled and took another sip of coffee, thinking about how much profit they had made off that idea. It had been surreal.

After the little silly pointing thing, Harry had explained that George could steal cable off of a person and broadcast it magically to everyone. Hermione had argued about it being immoral to do that, stealing good money off of the cable companies, but Harry told her that they would try to find a squib in one of the company to make a deal with. They did actually find a vice president of one, who quickly gave them a deal. A third of the money ended up going to the company, a third to Harry, and a third to George. Harry had, of course, refused to take money, but George quickly blackmailed him into taking it.

She thought about how many more things She and Harry had thought up that George used, and how much money they had made out of it. Ron had come up with a few himself, all of them being Quidditch related. None of the Weasleys could compete with her and Harry though, having much more knowledge and experience with the muggle world, where useful inventions were much more common and plentiful.

The rest of the show went by like that, in companionable silence between them(except the show) and Hermione letting her brain wonder happily.

It was interrupted when Ron came by for lunch.

"Hey guys," he smiled happily at them.

"Hullo," they both responded, Ginny not taking her eyes off the TV.

"Hey 'Mione, have you seen my thermo-cup?" he asked, looking around. "I forgot it on the table when I went to work..."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his negligence, briskly walking over to him, feeling completely energized.

"Yes, I drank it," she thrusted the empty cup at him.

"All of it?" he asked her with wide eyes.

She rolled her eyes again, thinking the Weasleys were too overprotective with their children. Molly was the same way, always making sure that they were in everyone's business, commenting on anything they disapproved. Well, Hermione wouldn't let them dictate how to raise her child.

"Yes," she said, irritated, "it was only a cup, Ronald, really, it's not going to do any harm to-"

"There was almost half a gallon in there," he looked at her fearfully.

Hermione looked back and forth between the cup and her idiotic husband. "You left out a cup of coffee, out in the living room, with a space charms?" she confirmed, making sure that there was no misunderstanding of why she would murder him.

"Er..." he stuttered and then ran for the floo.

"Stop him!" she yelled at Ginny, who just shushed her and kept watching the show, letting the culprit get away. Really, what kind of friend was she? A horrible one.

So once the coward left the house, Hermione stared at Ginny with a thunderous expression, feeling betrayed. "You just- Oh..." she blinked, and held her stomach, feeling the now familiar sensation of magic traveling through her spine. "Oh..." she said, patting her baby and reassuring it that it could have all of her magic if it wanted.

Funnily enough, that seemed to snap Ginny out of her show, because she too stared at Hermione fearfully. "Hermione?" she asked, edging away.

"Oh no," she shook her head. "You're not leaving me too!" she cackled, shutting down the floo access with a jittery wand wave.

"Hermione..." Ginny stuttered, putting her hands up in surrender, as if Hermione would hurt her or something. Really, that was just plain insulting.

"I wouldn't hurt you, Ginny," Hermione said reassuringly. "I just don't want to be alone..." she said, acting sad, and trying to keep her leg from twitching from the energy.

"Oh, sorry Hermione," Ginny went closer to her and hugged her. It was nice, Hermione liked hugs.

"I like hugs," she expressed happily, reiterating her thoughts. "We should go get more," she decided.

"Um, they don't sell hugs..." Ginny said, completely off topic, in Hermione's opinion.

"Leah will hug me! She's really _warm _too..." she smiled, thinking about her new friend.

Ginny put her head in her hands, probably day dreaming about it too. Really, she needed more warm friends.

"Ooh! Let's invite Astoria!" Hermione said suddenly, thinking of her even newer friend.

"You're going to make me go, aren't you..." Ginny sighed.

Hermione had no idea what she was talking about, so she didn't respond. "Let's call her!"

"I don't have her number, or floo address," Ginny shrugged.

Hermione thought about it. She remembered wanting to call Astoria earlier, to apologize about something, but she couldn't figure out how to reach her without going through Harry. She remembered thinking about asking Malfoy for the address, but not wanting to disturb Harry in case that he was sleeping the were Leah. Plus, there was a big chance that Malfoy was there _with_ Astoria, and waking them up wouldn't be pleasant for them.

Then she had thought about how there should be a registry, like a phone book, about people and their floo addresses, but then she had remembered how much it would mess up security for that to happen. All one needed to do was look it up and then they could go and attack people. There _were_, of course, wards to only allow floo _calls_ but not floo travel.

She had then thought of a few other ways, including sending a patronus but thinking it would look too alarming, and had not come up with anything other than talking to Harry later.

Right now, she just couldn't for the life of her figure out why she had been so _illogical_ about it.

Hermione looked at Ginny. "Greengrass, right?" she asked, already moving to the fireplace and taking a handful of powder.

"Yeah..." Ginny said slowly, looking at her warily.

She smirked at the little redhead. "She's a pureblood," she grinned and turned toward the fire. "Greengrass Manor!" she yelled and stepped in the fire.

The ride was comfortable, having cast a stabilization charm on herself so that she could travel with the baby safely.

She came out of a nice enough place, one that looked uncannily like Malfoy Manor.

"Granger?" a girl from her right asked. She looked and saw her former classmate, Daphne.

"Daphne!" Hermione cried out happily, genuinely happy to see old acquaintances.

The girl's eye twitched, showing Hermione that her ice queen nickname was completely exaggerated. Hermione could _so _do a better job. She quickly set her face into a stone mask to match the other girl. There would be no telling eye twitches from her.

No one outdid Hermione in _anything_.

"Er, Hermione? What are you doing?" Ginny asked, sounding resigned, which was completely uncalled for.

"Greeting an old acquaintance," Hermione told her imperiously, turning her nose up at them.

Ginny sighed, "We came to see Astoria."

"Stay here," Daphne told them, before walking off, not showing an ounce of personality. Hermione wondered if she'd done that for so long that she had trouble finding her emotions. Maybe she'd suggest a counselor or something...

"Hey guys!" Astoria smiled at them.

They greeted each other, Hermione giving the girl hug that was ninety percent belly.

"Let's go see Leah!" Hermione urged as soon as the formalities were over.

"Hermione... please," Ginny looked at her imploringly. "This is getting _beyond_ humiliating-"

"Don't worry," Hermione cut her off, instantly knowing what she was worried about. "Leah won't be humiliated that we saw their first kiss, she'll probably think it cute, I bet!" Astoria just looked at them amusedly, which Hermione thought was brilliant. She knew she liked the girl for a reason. "So, ready?"

"No!" Ginny stomped her foot suddenly, making Hermione stare at her. "I don't to hear about their stupid little perfect date!" she cried.

Hermione widened her eyes purposefully. "Please?" she asked nicely.

"No!" Ginny said stubbornly.

Well, Hermione could fight stubborn with stubborn and come out way ahead.

She took in a really big, deep breath. "I'm pregnant and I want girl bonding! Now!" she shrieked out at her loudest volume. Both of the girls cringed away from her and immediately nodded affirmatively. She was careful not to show it, but she felt very smug. "Woo!" she cheered happily, getting her way, and wanting girl bonding time.

They quickly flooed to Harry's, where they found an empty plate that looked like it had been licked clean, and noises from Draco making a racket upstairs. "I'm just gonna go say hi to Drake really fast..." Astoria pointed up, making her way to the stairs.

"No!" Hermione cried petulantly. Girl bonding time meant no boys. "Later! No boys allowed now..." she grumbled, walking outside.

Thankfully, they decided to follow her, else she would have screamed again.

* * *

Leah stepped out of the bushes, walking toward Emily's house. She immediately saw Hermione, the ex-whore and another white girl. She looked at them curiously, wondering what they were there for.

"Hey guys!" she called out to them, raising her voice for their less sensitive ears.

"Leah!" Hermione yelled, looking ridiculously happy to see her. She waddled over, the speed that she was attempting making her pregnant stomach flop around dangerously, and then hugged her.

Leah just stared down at her, bewildered. "Err," she fidgeted, "hey, I'm happy to see you too?"

"No wonder Harry hugs you so much!" Hermione commented, ignoring her fidgeting. "You're so fucking _warm_!"

Leah patted her back and stepped away warily. "She's crazy again," Ginny offered with a shrug. Hermione just kept smiling at her creepily, trying to hug her again.

"Err, okay," she nodded, ignoring that and looking at the new girl. "I'm Leah Clearwater," she offered her hand.

"Harry's girlfriend!" Hermione added helpfully. It _was_ actually helpful, the girl had to know that was her territory.

The girl took it and smiled at her, while cringing a little at Ginny, who Leah was starting to feel a little bad about. "Astoria Greengrass," she nodded and awkwardly added, "Draco's Girlfriend."

"Oh!" Leah smiled. "Yeah, he's cool," she lied, not having anything better to say about him. "I was just about to get it over with, my cousin is waiting to interrogate me, I think," she explained, pointing at Emily's house.

"Oh!" Hermione yelled again, and Leah could easily see her restraint was all gone, "I wanna see Emily!" She then waddle-ran inside, forgetting about the hugs she had still been trying to sneak from Leah, not waiting for anyone else. Even without her hearing, their squeals would have been perfectly clear.

And what was that she just heard about them seeing their kiss? "Err... did they just said that you guys were at that restaurant?" Leah asked them awkwardly, not knowing one of the girls at all, and not liking the other at all.

"Yeah," Ginny said and looked away. If she didn't feel so bad for the girl, she would have jumped around laughing at the girl and gloating, because it was an extremely good turn of the tables.

As it was, she only did it in her mind.

"Hm..." she hummed, feeling increasingly awkward. "I'm just gonna-"

But she was cut off by the new girl, who admittedly, probably didn't even hear Leah mumbling. "Nice animagus form there, by the way," she smiled at her, pointing towards the bushes that Leah had just come out of.

Leah looked at Ginny curiously, who shrugged back, but looked alarmed.

"Err, thanks," Leah said, and then remembered the bonfire, way back, when Malfoy asked them how they had the same animagus form. Is that how what they called their shifting? There really was no other way to call it other than wolf...

Leah eyes went wide. That meant that Malfoy knew about them again? Oh shit.

"Oh, don't worry," Astoria told her, probably misreading her. "Draco told me that you were a witch too," she smiled and leaned forward conspiratorially, "he told me not to tell Harry, but he saw you transfiguring to a wolf," she smiled rolled her eyes – probably at her boyfriend.

Leah glanced warily at Ginny, who did the same, and did some of the quickest thinking she'd ever done. She'd be proud of it later, when she was less anxious. "Err, yeah. It was hard, you know, becoming an animaous," she nodded knowingly.

"Err.." Astoria looked at her weirdly. Shit, she knew she mispronounced it. Ginny thankfully saved her.

"They call it differently here in the U.S," she rushed out quickly.

"Yeah," Leah nodded, "Uh-huh." She'd never been the best liar.

"Okay..." Astoria looked at both of them warily and started walking inside.

"Oh!" Leah thought of a _brilliant_ idea. "Don't forget to not mention any of this in front of them," she warned, thinking quickly. "They know about my er... animagus... form, and about the imprinting, but that's it. So don't tell them."

"Imprinting?" she questioned curiously.

"Magical bond," Ginny grumbled, looking at the ground angrily. Leah smirked victoriously in her head.

"Is that why Harry..." the girl asked Ginny awkwardly.

Leah stared at Ginny, waiting for her answer. If she just said yes, then it would mean that she still blamed Leah for losing Harry, and that she wasn't taking any of the responsibility.

Ginny sighed and said, "mostly," she glanced at Leah. "Sort of," she amended.

Eh, Leah could live with that. She went inside, while Ginny shared her dramatic life story, probably trying to get some pity.

"So, how was your date?" Emily asked Leah excitedly, arm in arm with Hermione, as soon as she stepped in. Rachel was sitting there, looking curious as well.

"Perfect, of course," Leah sighed, much too girlishly for her tastes.

"Duh," Rachel said impatiently, "He's your imprint, of course you'll think he's perfect. We want details!" to which Emily nodded, agreeing with Rachel for once.

"I don't think so," Leah said softly, ignoring their greed for details – she wasn't indulging them, especially when Hermione had just basically run down the whole thing. "Sometimes it feels more like I'm his imprint than he's mine." She actually felt a bit dejected for some reason that she couldn't fully grasp.

Rachel and Emily rose their eyebrows at that admission, while Hermione nodded knowingly. It was probably how much sadness was in her voice when she said that, that alarmed Emily and Rachel. By all means it should be the best news in the world, not anything to be sad about.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Emily asked her, a bit wearily.

"In a way, yes," Leah allowed, and tried to think exactly _why_ she was feeling this way.

"So he's the one chasing you even though you imprinted on him?" Rachel asked, ignoring their conversation.

"That's a good good job, Leah. I'm very very proud of you," she praised as if she was a kindergarten teacher. She even patted Leah on the head. "I told you, if you just make him work for it, he'll love you more. Somehow you stumbled through it," she shrugged picking at her nails, "but whether it was luck like you, or skill like me, we still have our men in line. Congratulations!" she finished cheerfully.

Everyone else just stared at her, until Emily talked, completely ignoring Rachel's craziness and bringing them back to their previous conversation.

"What way, Leah?" Emily asked concernedly.

But Leah was thinking about what Rachel said. No, she wasn't taking her seriously like last time, she fully realized she'd been an idiot to even contemplate doing anything that Rachel says. She blamed her nerves for what happened last time.

No, she wasn't taking her seriously. But... something was nagging at her. Something Rachel said.

"Leah? You alright?" Emily asked, looking between her and Rachel, who Leah had been staring at unintentionally.

"Yeah..." she said absent-mindedly, distracted by the nagging feeling. "It's something Rachel said that's nagging at me..."

"Oh no..." Emily paled.

Leah grinned, "No, nothing like that. I'm not going to listen to her and make Harry do stuff for me or give me gifts... just..." Leah trailed off. That's when it hit her, Harry doing stuff for her. He was _always _doing stuff for her, but she did barely anything back.

"Hey guys..." Hermione whined. "I think I drank too much coffee and I'm crashing down..."

Leah ignored it.

Harry had given her gifts, like all the time. He told her stories when she wanted and acted like a brat. He cooked for her whenever she was hungry. He even saved her life when she fought vampires... and then she got it.

She'd done almost nothing back.

"Emily!" Leah shouted out suddenly, startling Emily out of her seat and almost making her fall. "I need to do something nice for Harry!" she exclaimed almost frantically.

"What?" Emily asked with wide eyes. "Why do you need to do that?" She held a hand to her chest, probably from the shock of Leah suddenly screaming at her.

"No!" Rachel stood up, pointing at Leah. "Do _not_ ruin all the hard work that I did getting you and Harry together!"

Leah didn't care about anything they were blabbering about, she was too worried about how badly she'd fucked up. "I've been so _selfish_!" she howled.

"Leah!" Hermione snapped her out of her single minded focus. "Just because you can't remember anything you did right _now_, doesn't mean you can't not have been selfish."

... What?

"Too many negatives..." Leah fidgeted, thinking too hard. "Too difficult..."

"It's really not," Emily defended Hermione, who nodded back, apparently delighted with having someone supporting her. "It was only three and -"

Leah didn't really give a shit.

"I need to go! Now!"

She immediately ran out the door, running for Harry's house. As she ran, she heard Astoria say, "Whoa, that girl can run fast. That was _not_ human."

Ginny's voice was the last thing she could hear, "Let's get Hermione and go though, she seems like she needs a nap."

Putting that out of her head, she focused back on Harry. She didn't have a very good idea what to do, but she would think of something in the way.

Hopefully.

* * *

Leah walked through the back door of Harry's house. She didn't bother knocking anymore, she'd been here practically everyday since the bonfire all those weeks ago. However, she found out that he wasn't there. Not only that, but the house looked like it was being emptied. There were boxes everywhere, and stuff was missing from their shelves.

Most of it was already in the boxes, there was only about a third of the things left out unpacked, but oddly enough they were the things that she and Harry used the most often. That included most of the kitchen things, since she ate so much.

Then she noticed Malfoy coming down the stairs, and then throwing stuff in one of the open boxes..

For a second she thought they were moving.

"What's going on?" Leah frowned at the boxes.

"We're moving," Malfoy told her simply. Now she _knew_ they were moving.

She started hyperventilating.

"What do you mean you're moving?" she almost screeched at him. He seemed a bit surprised at her tone, but kept going on with his packing after barely any pause.

"We've completed our assignment, no thanks to Potter, of course," Malfoy sighed. "Oh well, it's not like there was much to do anyways," he shrugged. "Haven't seen a single vampire since that first day..."

"Harry's been fighting vampires almost every week!" she yelled at him, indignant on Harry's part, and still incredibly upset that they were leaving.

Malfoy stopped packing and turned to her angrily. "He did what? Why didn't he ever ask me for help?" he complained irritatedly. "I've been _begging_ for some action, but _no_... training and more training, that prick."

Leah decided she didn't care about Malfoy's drama anymore. "When did you find out that you were moving?" she questioned a bit desperately, hoping that he had just found out and that Harry had a long time for her to convince before he had to go.

"A little while ago, but I just told Potter about an hour ago," Malfoy explained with a little shrug. "Well, I left him a note and I came in to see him reading it about ten minutes ago. He left for your house after that." Malfoy had started looking through books and picking out which were his and throwing them in the boxes.

"Why are you-"

Malfoy cut her off. "It's all in the note," he said, quite rudely in her opinion.

She bit back the impulse to strangle him and went to read the note that was on top of the kitchen table.

* * *

_Potter,_

_In short, the meeting was a success. I even got a promotion at work as security in the world cup. I'm probably not going to be a trainee for long. I used the skills that I've been raised with to convey how well we've been doing. I even conveyed your message about assistance against the vampires, but since there haven't been any, Auror Bones doesn't apparently agree, so she's not going to take it up to the I.C.W. She wants evidence before even thinking about making a case. _

_If you manage to somehow luck your way into some evidence, be sure to inform me so that I may represent us. As a more reputable pureblood, the information will be taken much more seriously coming from me. _

_You're very welcome. _

_-Draco Malfoy._

* * *

Leah turned back to Malfoy. "This doesn't say anything about moving," she ground out through her teeth.

Malfoy looked back, surprised. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "that was last night's note. There's another over there," he pointed at one of the shelves.

She went and picked it up.

* * *

_Potter,_

_You should thank me, I got us out of here. _

_I forgot to mention that in last night's note._

_I'm going to be packing my stuff all day, so try not to bother me too much, as my time is important. _

_You're very welcome. _

_-Draco Malfoy._

_P.S. If you've seen my massaging neck pillow, could you please let me know. I've tried _accio_ but for some reason it's not working._

* * *

Leah blinked after reading that, not knowing if he should laugh or throttle him. She looked toward Malfoy who was humming and still packing away. How much _stuff_ did he have?

She threw down his completely useless notes – their only use was incriminating him more – and faced Malfoy. "Do you know if he's leaving for sure?" she asked a bit desperately.

He looked at her looking astonished. "Of course, why wouldn't he leave?" he asked, looking as if she asked the stupidest question.

Leah glared at him pointedly.

He cocked his head and scrunched his eyebrows in thought. "I'm positively _flummoxed_ as to why he wouldn't-," he started saying and then opened his eyes in surprise. "Oh! Because you're here right?" he smiled at her, completely ignorant of her glower. "I knew I was missing something," he snapped his fingers as if saying 'shoot'.

She breathed through her nose, desperately struggling from phasing and killing him, then searching for Harry. Once she found Harry she would probably kidnap him and take his wand, not that it would really do much. She didn't know how to stop him from leaving, but she'd figure out a way. She figured out how to change her voice-mail message the other day, this couldn't that be much harder.

In front of her, Malfoy was shaking his head amusedly, completely disregarding her. She opened her mouth to yell at him some more, but decided it was completely not worth it. Right now she had to go and catch Harry and stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life.

She tore out of the house, ripping the door straight off its hinges in her haste. She could hear Malfoy scream after her, "Hey! Be careful... Oh! And ask potter if he saw my neck pillow!" until it cut off when she passed the wards.

Phasing as soon as she couldn't see the house, she immediately ran full speed toward her house. The only person currently in her mind was Quil, whom she could barely even hear over her own panic.

"Jesus, Leah! Calm down," Quil said a bit desperately. Her panic was so strong it was infectious.

"I can't!" she cried out pathetically. "I can't let him leave!" she screamed out hysterically.

"Fuck, dude," Quil said, obviously astonished at her now gone pride. "We'll stop him, don't worry."

"How?!" she wailed, making Quil cringe. He started to run toward her house as well, even though he was closer. They'd probably make it there at the same time. "He can just teleport straight to fucking England where he'll be under wards that won't even let me find him!" she wailed even harder.

She could picture it now, aimlessly roaming the British countryside, always looking for her other half, her only reason for living.

Normally, if he didn't want to see her, she could at least stalk him a little, and get glimpses of him. She could go around and make sure to help him as much as she could without him seeing her. Making his life better would at least give her some kind of purpose, and seeing her actions affect him would make her life worth it.

But this... not even being able to find him... not even knowing if he was _alive_.

"Leah..." Quil thought, noticeably struggling to stay calm. "I doubt Harry would do that to you. He's a good guy," he said.

"But if he doesn't have a choice?" she asked sadly. Then it clicked on her. "If he doesn't have a choice... I still do," she thought.

"You can't do that, we need you here!" Quil said, now panicked himself.

"It doesn't matter, you know I have no choice," she said, hoping that Harry wouldn't fight her on this. She didn't care about leaving her home or anything. Okay, she was a little sad about it, but compared to staying without him – there was really no comparison.

"Leah-" Quil started, but it didn't matter, because she had just ran right past him and reached her house in seconds. She phased back to two legs before Quil got to say anything else.

In front of her house, almost all of the wolves were mingling. All of them, Leah included, loved to just hang around wherever there was going to be the most drama. She felt as if they _owned_ the reservation since they were almost everywhere all the time.

Her little moment's reprieve was shattered when she saw her mom hugging Harry with a few tears coming out of her eyes. She seemed to be trying hard to smile, while Harry was fidgeting about being exposed to yet another crying woman. Leah felt her breath leave her, it had to be true then. He was saying goodbye.

She felt her eyes prickle but fought the impulse down, resorting to her long practiced tradition of turning any sadness into anger. Now she was just _furious_ at Harry, because she didn't want to cry all over him. And that was _a lot_ of sadness she just channeled into her inner bitch.

Leah stomped out of the trees, bringing all attention on her. Harry and her mom turned to her last, and only because they had seen all the wolves turn to her, drawing their attention as well. When he noticed it was her, he looked at her mom and then to her, and smiled weakly, obviously asking for help. Leah clenched her hands. How he could think she would help him when he was...

"You!" she pointed at him furiously.

Harry's eyes widened comically in surprise. Except that Leah just _couldn't_ laugh at all then. This was probably the first time that she had been really angry at him, and it probably completely threw him off. She ran at him until she was only a foot away, glaring up at him with a rage that she hadn't felt in a long time. He still seemed surprised. "Hi?" he said weakly.

"You- you- _asshole_!" she screamed at him.

Harry cringed back from her a bit, taking a step away from her, but she gave him no space and stepped even closer than she had before. "What did I do?" he asked, visibly scared. She almost fell bad, but then she remembered he was _leaving her_. She fought against the imprinting that was telling her to soothe his fears.

She could hear some of the wolves whispering to each other, asking if Harry cheated on her or something like that, but she ignored them.

"You know damn well what you did!" she screeched. Some of the people around her covered their ears – Harry's hands twitched upwards, and his eyes almost closed in pain, but he seemed too scared to actually do it.

Smart.

Her mom tried to hesitantly speak. "Leah?.. honey?.. I don't think that there's any need-"

"Stay out of this, mom!" she told her, only a little more respectfully, since it was her mother and all. She looked back at Harry. "I won't let you do it!" she declared, not making much sense without explaining anything. She was getting a bit hysterical, that was never good. She heard a hiss from the side and looked quickly to see some of the guys wincing and looking at Harry sympathetically. Assholes.

"Um, whatever it is... I'm sorry?" Harry tried weakly.

"Sorry!" she mocked loudly, her voice getting higher as she kept talking. "Sorry?! That's the best you can do?"

Harry just looked at her and seemed to fight with himself. Finally he just blurted out, "I'm confused."

Leah gawked at him, now even angrier. She thought he'd be a man about this, but when she gets mad he just ignores it? She thought that was almost insulting for some reason. This did not seem like something her imprint would do, which just pissed her off even more for being so utterly wrong when she'd thought him perfect.

She breathed out through her nose and grabbed the front of his shirt harshly, getting ready to punch him if she needed. "You're leaving," she said and saw him widen his eyes. He opened his mouth, but she beat him to it. "You're leaving! Just like that!" she glowered.

Harry opened his mouth to speak again, but she spoke over it again. She _really_ didn't want to hear any of his meaningless reassurances when he wasn't going to be there. It really would only make her angrier. "No! You can't just leave and pretend this is going to be alright. You _know_ what this is like, we spoke a lot about this, and now you're just..." she sputtered, barely believing it herself. "You're just leaving me, just like that," she let go of his shirt, all the fight going out of her.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Seth and her mom trying to get to her, probably to cheer her up, but Quil and Embry had grabbed them both and stopped them from interfering. Seth was struggling against Quil's hold, but Quil was much bigger than her little brother. Embry even had a hand over Sue's mouth, muffling all her talking, but her mom didn't struggle and just glowered at Embry. It was a bit extreme, but she'd have to thank Quil and Embry later for helping her. She didn't want anyone to interfere and end up making Harry leave sooner.

She didn't even have the energy to fight him anymore. She just looked at him sadly, showing him how heartbroken she was. Hopefully, it'd help her convince him that she needed to go with him to England.

"Leah-"

"Well, I'm coming with you," she said resolutely. "You're not getting rid of me," she promised, cringing at how creepy that sounded. Tears started to form in her eyes at how hopeless this was. The more she fought him, the less he would want her. Rachel was right about playing hard to get, maybe she shouldn't have seemed quite so desperate.

"But Leah..." he said and then seemed to falter when a tear trickled out her eye. He looked astonished, but tried to smile anyways, probably to try to make her feel better and break her heart again at the same time. She closed her eyes and felt two tears be pressured out from her eyes scrunching. She could feel her heart breaking all over again like with Sam, only this time it was impossible for her to get angry anymore. It had been hard enough staying angry for that long, and she couldn't do it anymore. There wasn't anyone to blame and hate here, since she loved Harry more than herself, so she couldn't get angry at anyone else either. She had loved Sam, but it was a lot more selfish love, so it had been easier to ignore logic and stay bitter at him. "I'm not- _oomph_," he had started to talk, but she had gone in to hug him at the same time.

If she was going to get have to fight to see him, she'd at least get one last big hug out of him. Something for her to think about when she was hopelessly looking through England, trying to see him when he left a ward or something. It would be almost impossible, but she would do it for him.

There were some choking sounds from her side, where all the other people watching where. She just now remembered that they had seen everything, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She was much to depressed to even bother caring, plus she'd be leaving soon to spend her life searching endlessly for Harry. It didn't even help her feel better that some of them were sympathetic to her.

"Harry-mmph smmph." she had tried to plead with him, but he had brought a hand over her mouth to stop her from speaking and wiggled his body so that she let him go. She reluctantly did so. "I'm not leaving!" he rushed out, and then breathed in and out harshly. The emotional hug she had been squeezing him in had probably been way too tight, and he didn't seem to be able to breathe. Maybe that's why he stopped her from talking. She felt kind of bad, it was supposed to be affectionate and, okay, fine, a bit needy, but not harmful and-.

Her ears seemed to finally relay the message to her brain, which just stopped working. "You're not leaving?" she blinked, expressionless.

"I'm not!" he rushed out sounding grateful at her finally letting him talk. He was stilling breathing heavily.

"You're not leaving?" she repeated, this time with wide hopeful eyes.

She saw him bite his lip and she almost felt her heart sink again, until she noticed that he was trying not to laugh. "Really, if you would have just let me tell you..."

Leah could only stare at him joyously. She was about to happily kiss him, when she heard the choking sounds again. She turned her head, wondering how anyone could still be crying, and then felt her stomach plummet.

Jacob and Paul both had their fists in their mouths, struggling so hard not to laugh that they were making choking sounds. Everyone else was either biting their lip or hiding their face in their arms – all trying not to laugh at her.

Her face paled. _Oh god_, she thought. Then they seemed to sense her gaze on them, so they knew there was no reason to hide it anymore. Simultaneously all of them started laughing the loudest she'd ever heard anyone laugh.

"All of that... all of them...?" she asked Harry weakly. He just grimaced at her sympathetically. "Oh _God_," she said, and tried to hide her face in his shirt, her face switching back and forth from tomato red to pale when she thought about how embarrassed she was. "Can we move to England?" she asked him hopefully, which just set all the wolves off laughing even more.

Harry didn't answer, but held her and stroked her short hair – which really, was better than anything he could have said. That made her feel better, that he knew how to cheer her up no matter what. She _knew_ he was perfect. It was completely irrational that she had thought he wasn't when she had gotten it all wrong. He knew that anything he said would have been empty and meaningless, since there was really no way to make it less embarrassing, but holding her like that showed that he was there for her, and would never laugh at her. She peeked an eye out, to thank him for being so perfect, when she saw his face. It looked like it was in pain. She was about to ask him what's wrong, when he snorted.

That's right, he _snorted_. Which meant that he didn't stay silent to make her feel better because he _couldn't talk_ - because he was too busy trying not to laugh at her. She hid her face again. She would have stormed away from him if she wasn't using his shirt right now. Maybe she'd just rip it off and walk away with it on her face. But then he'd be shirtless... which would mean she would _have_ to drop the shirt so that she could properly look, which would mean that she couldn't hide anymore... it was quite a pickle she was in there.

She did pinch him anyways, just to show him she was displeased, but that just made another snort escape him. At least he had the decency to try and hide them.

Although, if she was honest, she couldn't blame him, she did just make a complete fool out of herself for no reason. _Again_. If she had only let him speak at all... she dug her face in even more from the mortification.

Some of the wolves seemed to finally be able to speak again, "Oh, oh, my stomach hurts," Jared said.

"Quil, Embry, thank you _so much_ for stopping Seth and Sue," she heard Jacob applaud, thanking them _way_ too gratefully.

She was going to kill them both. "They're both going to die," she mumbled out to Harry. "Slowly, deliberately, and in a lot of pain," she finished.

"You guys paid us back by not making too much sound and distracting them," Quil's voice was cheerful. If Harry hadn't been stroking her hair, and she hadn't been so embarrassed, she would have cheerfully beat them all to death.

She heard her mother huffing, which brought her a small amount of gratefulness that _someone_ was on her side. "That was mean," her awesome mom scolded. "Though, I can't deny it was extremely cute," her awful, _awful_ mother said, chuckling a little.

"Is there anyone who _isn't_ laughing at me?" she asked Harry piteously.

She felt him immediately stop shaking in laughter. She peeked a single eye out, and saw him staring at her with a very apologetic and pained look on his face. It almost made her feel bad that she ruined his fun. If it hadn't warmed her so much, it would have.

So while the rest of her so called pack laughed at her, Harry brought his mouth to her ear and spoke softly. "If I had found out that you were moving, I would have probably cried myself to sleep," he moved his face away and she could see the intensity in his eyes. He was imagining it, she was sure. "Then I would have spent the rest of my life trying to find you," Her eyes went misty for a completely different reason than before, and she thought it would have been a perfect time for a second kiss, but he shook his head and smiled at her. "Your reaction was cute," he chuckled, and then reached down to kiss her between her eyebrows tenderly.

Leah thought she should make a fool out of herself more often.

"Hey, hey," she heard Quil say loudly, ruining the moment. She turned and saw him smacking Embry's arm to get his attention. "Who am I?"

Embry looked at him weirdly. "You haven't done any-"

"But who am I?" Quil repeated.

"What are-"

"No, no, who am I?" Quil cut him off again, shaking his head.

Embry just stared at him, puzzled. Leah didn't really get it either, but Harry seemed to by his snort, which he tried to cover up.

"Dude, I-" Embry tried again.

"Yeah, but who _am I_?" Quil asked with a wide grin.

"If you'd let me-"

"Exactly! Who am I?" Quil's eyes were wide, as if begging him to get it.

Embry just looked frustrated. Suddenly his face cleared and he laughed hard. "You're Leah! Not letting me speak! I get it!" Then the both of them proceeded to laugh like a couple of hyenas, the rest of the pack joining them.

Leah just hid in Harry's shirt again. "Can we leave now? My face is starting to hurt from the embarrassment," Leah admitted.

"Yeah, come on. I'll cook you something, that'll make you feel better," Harry told her. She would have objected about being called a walking stomach, but it was basically true. Plus her imprint cooking for her was one of the best things in the world.

"Thanks," was all she ended up saying.

"I _do_ have to talk to your pack in a bit though, I have a lot of new information, you think you'll be able to get your face out of there by then?"

She just groaned and didn't remove her face from his shirt all the way to her house, hoping Harry would let her skip that meeting.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry if this seemed a bit of a filler chapter. I struggled through it. The next one is my favorite, so I'm excited about it, I wrote most of it before finishing chapter seven.

Also, in the last two chapters, I've spent a lot more time editing than I originally had, so please let me know if the writing actually improved, or if I'm just wasting time. Don't just say it so that I update faster either.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Leah was bored as shit.

There was no nicer way of saying it.

They were having a meeting at Emily's house – she basically owned Sam, so their house was _her_ house – and it just wasn't keeping her attention at all.

There weren't enough people in there to stop faking interest, either. It was only the alphas, betas and the two important imprints: Harry, because he was just that fucking awesome, and Emily, because she cooked the food.

Oh, and Seth was there, too. He just kinda refused to go away, though. Annoying little brat.

Sometimes it would be a little more interesting – like when Harry talked, or when she looked at Harry, or when they talked about Harry...

She could only stare at him so long before they started complaining though, and she already did that enough. Plus, they had started to laugh at her making a fool of herself again at the beginning of the meeting(the scene she made earlier _and _the staring), and she refused to actually pay attention after that. On Principle, she ignored them. Not because of embarrassment.

The topic was interesting enough when Harry talked, but mostly it was just watching him that was interesting, not their actual conversation. She had gotten it all out of him before everyone came inside anyways.

It was because of Sam, that she was so bored, she knew. His whole pack was just so _boring_.

At least compared to her pack. Sam's was like a history lecture in comparison. Even the little drama that Sam had – leaving Leah for her cousin – could be found in a regular soap opera any day. It was a bit dramatic, but any middle-age woman could have named three different shows it's happened on, and suggestions on how to make it sadder.

Leah's pack though... that was _full_ of new and exciting things. It even started out dramatically – escaping the torment of the previous dictator-like leader(Sam), protecting the underdogs(even though she still hated the Cullens), rebelling against the police(Volturi), Jacob imprinting on a new species...

And now, _she_ was bringing the excitement, imprinting on a _wizard_. Jacob could argue all day that Nessie was awesome because she could live off of blood or food, but magic beats all that, hands down. Running faster than a car might be awesome... but flying – flying beats _everything_.

Now she was just sitting there, day dreaming about random stuff that would always loop back to Harry, and waiting until the right moment so that she could lay her head on his shoulder.

It was crucial that she did it at the right time. He couldn't be speaking, else it would interrupt him and draw attention to her. She couldn't do it when he was staring at her, either, that would be too distracting for her – she'd never been able to break gaze first. She couldn't distract him either, since he was the one that was pretty much in charge.

She had to- Perfect! Sam was ranting about rules! Everyone was bored and distracted! She moved a bit closer so that her arm was touching Harry's, making him automatically reach for her hand with his.

Now _that_ was awesome.

Automatically – instinctual. If those were his instincts, then she had done _well_. She sidled up a bit closer, and leaned half of her weight on him. He squeezed her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. He wasn't looking at her though, actually paying attention to what Sam was saying, for some reason. Weird. He shifted a bit... _Perfect_.

She used the shifting that he did to shift herself a little as if in response, letting her lean on him more – and finally lay her head on his shoulder.

She did a victory dance in her head.

This was how life should have always been. Doing shit with her imprint, saving the world and cuddling. It was perfect. She barely noticed when she snuggled a little more into him. It felt so nice. She could do this all day and night.

In bed, even without sex, she could just lay there with him and drift with him... holding each other warmly...

* * *

Seth watched as Leah's eyes started to close while staring at her imprint lovingly, not paying any attention to what was going on in the meeting. He would listen closely, in case she had any question later, although she'd probably prefer to ask Harry. He'd do it just in case.

He caught some of Sam's rant.

"I know that you have some kind of alliance or something with the Cullens, just like us-"

"Friendship, you mean," Harry interrupted.

Sam ignored it, probably still thinking that friendships with vampires are an abomination. To be fair though, Seth was still the only one that genuinely liked the Cullens. Jacob only liked Bella and was indifferent to the rest because of his imprint. "But they cannot come on our land." Harry shook his head softly, not bothering Leah, but Sam put up a hand to stop him from saying anything. "I do, however, agree that they should be informed, so if you want to do that, you can go after our meeting," he nodded.

It was funny, how it sounded as if Sam gave Harry permission to go do it, as if it was needed. He always did stuff like that. Seth glanced at Jacob, who looked back, both sharing an exasperated look.

Harry looked like he was about to argue, but everyone's attention went to Leah, who gave a little snore. It wasn't obscenely loud, or even loud enough to distract normal people, but their hearing meant that they it was perfectly clear to them. So everyone fell silent and stared at her.

In the silence, Harry and Emily seemed able to hear it, although Harry might have been able to before, Leah was never clear about how sensitive his hearing actually was.

Seth looked around, noticing three different reactions. Sam and Jared both looked irritated, clenching their jaws in annoyance. Although Sam's seemed to be more pronounced than his Beta's. Jacob didn't seem upset at all, and Seth was glad for that, it was another reason for why he was a great leader. The closest thing to being upset that he showed was just some barely noticeable fidgeting. It was probably embarrassing to have your beta falling asleep in a meeting, Seth could understand that. It was all overshadowed by amusement, anyways. He seemed to be fighting a snort down.

Seth himself would lump himself with Emily and Harry, who were both looking like they wanted to coo at Leah. Well, Emily actually _was_ cooing under her breath a little.

Harry only had a small smile on his face when he looked at Leah, but it looked no less loving than how the wolves looked at their imprints.

Seth had to remind himself of what his sister told him all the time, to stop from joining Emily. "If you 'aw' at _anything_, I will give you the worst super wedgie in the world."

She had 'taught' him that when he was ten, when she dubbed him old enough to learn how to be a Clearwater. Sadly, he broke that rule almost the same day. He had tried not to, but eventually he ended up cooing at a kitten, and sequentially found himself on his tippy toes, trying to get away from the underwear that was crushing at his genitals.

His sister was a firm believer of tough love.

Her teachings paid off though, since he could proudly say that he didn't coo at Leah snoring on her imprint's shoulder, which was _adorable. _His previous Pack didn't think it was adorable at all, though, Sam and Jared glared at Harry to make him do something.

Idiots.

It was obvious that he would do no such thing. Harry just tapped his sister on the cheek lightly, and instantly, they couldn't hear Leah anymore, which just made Emily coo louder at the blatant love Harry showed – obviously Sam didn't complain when _Emily_ made noises, the hypocrite.

Sam opened his mouth, no doubt to rant since he was still glaring at Leah, but Harry cut him off. "I'll repeat it all to the Cullens, don't worry," he said in a tone that brooked no arguments – or more like any more sidetracking. "Let's just start. I've been sort of campaigning for help with the ministry-"

"_Really_," Jacob interrupted with a smirk, "because I could _swear_ that you spend practically all your time with Leah." Jacob rose his eyebrows, challenging him to deny it.

"It's been a very recent campaign," Harry flushed.

"As in like yesterday?" Seth teased.

"This morning," Harry mumbled. "Doesn't matter though, I brought it up with the Wizengamot," Seth looked at him blankly, and saw the rest do the same. Harry sighed, "our legislative slash judicial body-"

"That's not very smart," Emily tutted, interrupting Harry once again. "Those two should be split, they have too much power. It's unbalanced, it has more power than the president," she shook her head disapprovingly.

"We have a minister," Harry corrected, "and he has a vote in the Wizengamot, so it's a little more balanced," he shrugged, clearly not caring that much.

"Which was which again?" Seth asked everyone, not following too well.

Emily rolled her eyes at him. "Wizengamot is like our Congress and Supreme Court combined. The minister is like the president," she lectured, ticking fingers off her hand. "Right?" she checked with Harry, getting an impressed nod.

"We have a Congress?" Seth asked wide eyed. He'd always thought that Congresses were parts of kingdoms.

Emily looked at him in concern. "Didn't you go to _any_ of your classes?" She turned and glared at Sam and Jacob. "You two weren't supposed to let him skip _that_ much!"

"No, that's not it," Seth tried to sooth her fears. "The history teacher was just really hot."

Jacob nodded knowingly at him. "She really was."

Emily tutted, but Harry just grumbled. "I had a bloody ghost as a teacher, you lucky gits." He sat up – well as much as he could with his sister on top of him. "Anyways, we're not getting help, and I sort of quit my job, or working part-time now-"

"Did you find a new house yet?" Seth asked him curiously.

Harry just looked at him oddly. "We just spoke like half an hour ago, before Leah came..."

Seth shrugged defensively. "You could have called up some leads or something in that time!" he protested.

"I'm pretty sure he's been comforting your sister there," Jacob wiggled his eyebrows, making Seth growl. Harry was a nice enough guy, and never flaunted anything with Leah in front of Seth, but it was still his sister. He didn't want to hear that shit. It was gross.

"Back to the point," Harry spoke loudly, "we need to start making plans. _We can't keep doing this_," he glowered suddenly, speaking – more like _leading_ - in that way that Leah always raved about in her mind. "They keep sending wave after wave... we need to find the source. We need stop _reacting_ and we need to start _preventing_."

Everyone was silent mulling over his words. At least Seth thought so, but he should have known Sam would do something stupid.

"Listen here," Sam sputtered, "our packs are doing just fine protecting our lands, we don't need _you_ or anyone else to help!" he jabbed a finger at Harry.

"Uh-huh," Harry ignored him.

"I think it's a good idea," Jacob argued.

"We need to stay and protect our tribe!" Sam boomed.

"And we have you for that, don't we," Jacob didn't react, still speaking calmly. "My pack can go and patrol just a little bit farther. Just a few miles. You guys stay here, if we find something, we'll either pursue it, or we'll ask for help from you."

"No!" Sam roared. "You have a responsibility _here_!"

"And that's exactly what I'm doing!" Jacob finally raised his voice back. "What do you think I'm trying to do there? Go party? _Fuck_ Sam, stop being so fucking self-righteous."

"This is not how you do that-" Sam started to say.

"Jacob has his own pack," Harry interrupted. "And from what I've seen, he's never once tried to tell _yours_ what to do, so you should return the courtesy," Harry raised an eyebrow at him.

Sam glowered back at Leah's imprint, and Seth got ready to protect him if need be. "You can't just-"

"Yes, he can," Jacob interrupted. "We're doing this, Sam."

Sam growled in frustration, but didn't do anything else. Probably because he was terribly outmatched everywhere, even Emily looked like she was going to scold him. Jared was his only ally.

He just crossed his arms and sulked.

Harry sighed, now that the confrontation was over, he seemed to deflate, all the fight going out of him. "How about, Jake, you check in with Sam if you find something, so that you can at least tell him that you're about to leave the tribe a little less protected, so that he can act accordingly?"

"Fine," both alphas replied sullenly, making everyone else smile in amusement.

"Anything else?" Harry asked them.

"No," they both grumbled, making Seth actually laugh now.

"Alright, we're done here," Harry shook Leah awake.

At this, Leah lifted her head and cheered. "Alright! I'll race you home!" She leaped toward the door while Harry smiled and transformed into his owl form and flew out the window, passing her while she was standing outside, making sure that he was coming. She shifted and sprinted past him in seconds.

* * *

"They're so cute aren't they?" Emily cooed.

"I don't like him." Sam wisely put in.

Jacob snickered. "I just wanna know how he beats her all the time, unless his bird form has superpowers... there's no way it could match our speed-" He was interrupted with a hoot from the window. They all stared as Harry hopped inside and transformed back to human with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Well, your alphiness, ask and I shall answer." With that he winked, and apparated out to the Cullen's house to meet Leah there.

Sam jumped to his feet, knocking his chair on the floor. "What the hell did he just do?" He roared. "Jared, Seth, Jacob, go around the house and check for anything dangerous." He tried to command. The effect was ruined by Jacob who started to snicker, which turned into full blown laughter.

"Oh god! I get it!" He said in between laughs.

Emily was still a bit weary, but she joined in with a small smile and asked what happened.

"I get it. He just acts like he's going to race her, and then he doubles back and teleports!" He immediately devolved back into snickers.

It took about three seconds before everyone else joined in and started to laugh at how Leah was being played. Everyone except for Sam that is. He crossed his arms and sulked. Emily rubbed his back while snickering herself and cooing at him.

"Jake! Don't phase with her unless I'm there. I can't wait to see her reaction." Seth started daydreaming.

* * *

"So that's it," Harry concluded. "They pretty much shut me down."

Harry was now at the Cullens, having just explained in much more detail what happened at the Wizengamot meeting than with the wolves.

They asked about everything, taking more than three hours. Almost the whole family was there, and they were all interested. The only ones missing were Courtney and Rosalie, but it was probably for the best. Courtney would probably derail the meeting by hitting on him, and Rosalie would make snide little comments. It wasn't that he didn't like Rosalie... he was actually starting to warm up to her.

He just had to delusions about her personality.

"Well, first of all," Carlisle started out once Harry finished talking, looking at all his family, "we all want to say thank you for trying."

"Er," Harry said uncomfortably, never good at taking praise. "S'alright," he mumbled.

"Not to sound ungrateful..." Edward was clearly trying to not offend, "but... er... why didn't you fight harder?" He winced afterward, but Harry recognized that there really was no nicer way to say it.

Esme looked disapproving, but Harry smiled at her reassuringly, showing he took no offense. "There are a few reasons... the biggest one was that it wouldn't have done anything." He saw Edward's expression get a little doubtful, while still trying to not seem disrespectful. "Really, I _know_ these people. They were already set against it from the start."

Edward still didn't look convinced. "I'm just saying," he was clearly Esme's increasingly disapproving gaze that was directed at him, "that you were able to blackmail your boss into getting you way – why couldn't you have done the same to the Wizengamot?"

"There's a big difference between telling your_ boss_ that you'll quit if you don't get your way – that's negotiating. Telling the whole _legislative and judiciary body_ that you quit if you don't get your way – they wouldn't take that."

"I suppose," Edward shrugged.

"Edward..." even Bella looked at him oddly.

"Not only that," Harry continued, "but if I push too hard now, and they still turned it down – which they would have – what would happen when I come back with more evidence? They'd just be pissed off and turn it down to spite me."

Slowly, Edward's expression had turn reluctantly accepting. Harry was sure that if he had said it as it had first formed in his mind, it wouldn't have gone as well. His first thought was that it would ruin his reputation as an honorable person, which was why he still more clout than most people in that room. That was why his proposal even made it past 'do we believe his report?' stage. That was because his reputation as the most honorable politician meant that he was telling the truth, and wasn't trying to gain anything from it. It was very similar to how Dumbledore was treated, but with less trust in his wisdom, just his trustworthiness.

He really didn't want to lost that, selfish as it might sound. He really _would_ have done it, and thrown away his reputation, if he thought it would work... but it seemed like a waste. He'd probably admit it to Leah later... but that's about it. Everyone else would probably judge him. She never judged him.

Although sometimes – just sometimes – he was worried that she was just the opposite, and _never_ judged him. Even when she should.

It never lasted long, it was _really _hard to think of an example of when she should judge him, and he just couldn't come up with one. Besides, he got it enough from other people that he didn't need it from her too. And for that, he was extremely glad.

He would try and show her how glad he was later.

She probably deserved it after ditching her, anyways. Right after she had gotten home, he told her how he had to go and tell the Cullens. She was jealous, and even tried to entice him to a make out session, which he just barely managed to turn down.

If she knew how much it affected him...

Well, they'd probably never leave the house. He was trying to last as long as he could... but he would never forget that first day, when he met her. It had never changed, how he thought of her...

Passionate. Wild. She still very much personified those traits. Every thing she did was so passionate, and it only got worse when he broke up with Ginny. It was like all her restraint was gone, and in a few hours she started teasing him practically to submission. She wasn't even doing it on purpose – he knew she would do it a lot more if she knew how good at it she was - it was very natural. It wasn't forced, she wasn't doing it to get him to do something, and she wasn't doing it to get her way – to speed things along. She was doing it just because she was clearly enjoying it.

Which was why it was all the more effective.

If she had done any of it to get her way, like Ginny had sometimes done, it would've been a turnoff, and something easy to ignore. One time Ginny had worn a tiny little nightgown, to try and make him have sex with her despite saying no when he proposed. They'd had a huge fight. Harry had immediately gotten suspicious, she'd immediately gotten defensive – it was a mess.

Now, if _Leah_ were to do that... fuck. He'd be completely fucked. Especially because he knew what she looked like naked, from the time he'd caught her in the woods, which he just realized she was probably stalking him. It was pretty flattering, actually. And now he'd ditched her for vampires, something that he knew she'd hate - he'd have to make it up to her.

He was brought back to the meeting by a cough, and he tried playing it cool, acting like he was deep in thought about something important. He cleared his throat importantly. "I was thinking about asking the U.S. for help, actually," he fibbed.

The Cullens blinked in unison. Harry himself wouldn't have thought of it under normal circumstances, he'd always had his best ideas when lying. "Why didn't we think of that..." Carlisle murmured.

"I'm not even sure if there _is_ a ministry here," Harry shrugged.

"Well, it would probably a government, not a ministry," Emmett mumbled to himself.

"I don't care," Harry shrugged. "Anyways, anymore questions?"

"Can we come with you?" Emmett asked him eagerly.

"Wizards are pretty prejudiced against vampires," Harry cringed apologetically. He really _did _wish it was different. "They might try to kill you."

"We can take them," Emmett scoffed, getting a grin from Jasper. Everyone else shook their heads.

"Maybe," Harry allowed. "But Carlisle is your oldest and he's only a few centuries old. Bella over there would be a sitting duck." They all looked at him weirdly, but didn't interrupt. "They could probably just levitate her and burn her – that's how I usually kill newborns."

"Bella is a shield," Edward said proudly. "Your magic probably doesn't affect her."

"May I?" he asked, drawing his wand. He could without the wand, it was just to be more clear about what he was going to do. He saw apprehensiveness on Edward, so he clarified, "just to levitate her a few inches."

Bella rolled her eyes at her husband. "Go ahead, Harry. We _do_ trust you," she glared a little at her husband. It turned warm almost immediately, though. He could tell what Leah meant by how sickening those two were.

He quickly levitated her about two inches, getting no resistance at all. Bella giggled a bit, probably at the sensation, while Edward fretted. He shrugged at them, some of them wearing disappointed expressions.

"I didn't think it would stop it," Bella admitted. "You always said, Edward, that my gift was all mental."

"I can try and read your mind, if you want?" Harry offered.

"Okay, _that_ won't work," Edward bragged.

Bella rolled her eyes, but looked at Harry expectantly. She didn't seem to expect a problem either, and seemed much more confident this time.

For this, Harry _did_ need his wand. He wasn't particularly gifted in legilimency. Sure, he could get through most shields once the spell actually took effect, but that was mostly just willpower. Even then, though, he was pants at finding specific memories. The only thing he was good at was fighting the other mind off. It was actually a lot easier for him to find a memory when the person was actively protecting it, since he could go and attack where he felt the other conscience. A very skilled occlumens like Snape would make sure that what he was trying to hide would be deep within his mind, almost never thought about. Harry would have to spend days to find that particular memory.

He took a deep breath and gathered his magic. "Legilimens."

Immediately, he could feel a shield in place, and it was _strong_. He poked at it, testing it out. It felt really strange, kind of elastic, not at all like what he was used to. Most shields he would pound into submission, through sheer will, until it shattered. This one practically caught his will and threw it right back at him. It was disconcerting.

He screwed up his face in concentration, and could just vaguely notice that Edward seemed smug, and Bella a bit, too. They both glanced at each other, smiling in satisfaction.

Well, _that _wouldn't do.

Concentrating as much as he could, he gathered up all of his will and glared at Bella, fueling his magic with emotion. He threw himself at the elastic shield.

He felt it stretching, fighting to push him back. He saw Bella's eyes go wide, as did most of the Cullens at her reaction. He kept pushing, feeling it stretch even more. He had a passing thought, that if this failed, it would hurt like a bitch when it was all thrown back at him.

Finally, the elastic band tore, letting him go through, while Bella made a pained noise. He was immediately assaulted with visions of Edward and Nessie. It really _was_ all the girl thought about. There were a few – _very _few – thoughts about the Cullens, the werewolves, and him; but most of it was Edward and Nessie.

He would tell Leah later, she'd get a _hell_ of a kick out of that one. He knew her strong dislike for the girl.

Immediately after he got a hold of himself, he pulled back from her mind, finding it a bit harder than usual to go back. When he looked around, he could see Bella holding her head in pain, while Edward was glaring at him and holding his wife.

It didn't last long, Bella seemed to feel better very quickly. "It's alright, I'm alright," she assured.

"Sorry about that..." Harry tried to pacify Edward.

"I'm all better," Bella assured him. "He just got through my shield," she said, shocking the rest of the Cullens.

"I don't think anyone else will be able to do it," Harry assured them. "I have a..." he tried to think of something that didn't sound so conceited, "very strong willpower," he finished. "No one else will be able to."

They all nodded uncertainly, but seemed to trust him.

The meeting finished soon after, with not much solved other than the agreement that they would stay in touch, which they already had settled on before.

He was also informed that Courtney was somewhat upset with him for not visiting yet. They sympathized with him, because it really hadn't been that long since he last visited, only a few days, but in a way it _had_ been too long.

Courtney was a _newborn_ something that he'd forgotten in how lost he got with Leah. He had forgotten that she needed special attention and watching to make sure that she didn't relapse – especially this early. What he did, was ignore her, leaving all the responsibility with the Cullens.

It was inexcusable.

Although, they all seemed happy enough. From what they said, Rosalie liked having another sister well enough, especially a more normal one, since Alice was much too exuberant and Bella was... uninterested, he guessed was the best term. From what he had understood – and then verified when he used legilimency – was that Bella didn't like spending that much time with the others in the family. This was all explained to him once Edward left with Bella and Nessie for their cottage.

Also, from the little clues that he had gotten from the Cullens, Courtney didn't seem to like Bella that much. Well, it seemed impossible for that girl to dislike someone, but the word that came to mind was _unimpressed_. Courtney was a very social girl, he could've told anyone that, and she apparently wasn't very happy with how much Bella would ditch everyone for the only two things she really cared about.

Harry understood that, and even more, he understood that it was that very same social tendency of hers that made her upset with how little Harry visited. He'd saved her, so she saw him as a bit of a hero, and people hated it when their hero abandoned them.

He could definitely relate, with how little Dumbledore helped him. Yes, he understood Dumbledore's teachings that it was better to work things out for yourself – but sometimes it was better to just show support. He had turned out well in the end, the lessons eventually worked, but he still maintained that it wouldn't have been a big deal to skip all the angst. Not interfering when Malfoy bugged him so that he could learn to deal with bullies? Sure, he could see that, a lot of parents took that route. It did help him out a lot, after all. Not helping him when he faced Voldemort first year? Eh, it was a bit dangerous, but he could _maybe_ excuse it because of the prophecy. There were special circumstances.

Letting a multi-ton snake that can kill with a stare roam free and almost kill students, all the while letting the whole school think that it was _his_ fault – all for Harry to learn to solve puzzles. Yeah, that was just senile. But hey, the man saved his life. So what if he made a few mistakes. Dumbledore would always be a debated topic of his life.

He didn't want to be compared to Dumbledore, though. He didn't want to be 'debatable.' He was going to be there for Courtney.

He started thinking about ways to help her, to make up for abandoning her. What could he do for a vampire... All that came to mind was her thirst, and he already somewhat helped on that. Maybe he could come up with something else? Something like the anklet that he gave Leah...

Oh!

No... he had nothing. He guessed the best he could do was just spend time with her. Hopefully Leah would agree to come with, he really wanted them to get along – as small a chance that it was. There had to be things they could agree on though... maybe their mutual dislike for Bella? That was something that no one else had agreed with her on yet. Even Harry could only reluctantly agree with a few of her points, but not against her whole person.

After looking in her mind, he could probably agree with Leah a little more.

With that in mind, he told the Cullens that he would be back later to visit Courtney, and he went home, to figure out what to do about the house. He would need a new one now, and he didn't want to live at Leah's house – something he was sure she would suggest.

It wasn't that he didn't want to live with Leah, he really wouldn't mind that. Even though it had only been a _very_ short time since they started dating, he wouldn't be opposed to moving together already – it felt like they'd been together a lot longer.

Whether he wanted to admit it or not, they'd practically been dating for months. From that very first day that she came over, they'd been cuddling and touching more intimately(in a friendly way) than most married couples. Maybe it hadn't technically been cheating, since they both took a ton of precautions against that, but it had definitely been _emotional_ cheating.

All of the things they did combined to make him feel more comfortable with her than anyone else, and more than ready to live with her. However, there were a few other reasons for him to get his own house. Like the fact that he would be doing a lot of magic there, and it would be better if muggles like her mom wasn't close. There were a ton of reasons.

Like the fact that they couldn't have sex at her mom's house.

That was something that he was very sure she'd agree with - at least once she'd stop interrupting him and let him explain.

Getting home, he decided to take a shower, to smell good for Leah. In the shower, he was reminded of all the teasing that Leah had done, so he decided to put in a quick wank – another reason for his own place, with Seth's hearing he would have to wait until the house was empty.

As he finished and was drying up, his phone rang. A quick look revealed it was Leah. With a smile on his face, he picked it up, excited to tell her that he was getting a new place.

* * *

There were about fifteen vampires coming through the west – they were alerted by Alice. They weren't going to be much of a problem for all the practice that the Cullens and the wolves had been getting, but it wouldn't let them go help the three wolves that were stranded miles out. Most of Leah's pack.

Sam's pack couldn't get there in time to help, even if they wanted to, and the three were too far out to do anything.

It was _bullshit._

Jacob had been on patrol when he caught the scent of a vampire, one that had come in to the res , and he'd waited for Embry and Quil to catch up to him so that he wouldn't be alone when they investigated.

It wasn't like her pack had _tried_ to attack them or anything, no matter what Sam believed. They really were just investigating, even taking the precaution of asking for backup instead of going alone like he originally wanted to. Leah and Seth had _seen_ all of this in their minds when they had phased.

The problem had been when they followed it closely(staying properly hidden and ready to bolt at a moment's notice), even seeing a group of more than a dozen, mostly newborns, but a few looked older. The three wolves had come out of a bush in a particularly tall hill, and had a perfect bird's eye's view of a few miles out. In a valley, they saw the vampires perfectly, all fighting amongst themselves, probably because they were getting hungry from not feeding – they hadn't seen any news of mass murders.

At the first sight, all three of them froze, the ingrained response to seeing a stronger predator, so as not to attract attention.

After that, their first instinct had been to attack, with a blinding rage, for creating all of those vampires – or transporting, they didn't care – so close to their home.

Their second, more sensible, instinct had been to flee.

Five vampires, they could take between them. Maybe. A dozen, or more... they'd be slaughtered. Even being an alpha and all, Jacob could only take two by himself, and that was if they weren't very good.

So they tried to back out without letting them know, and failed. They weren't incompetent, they didn't alert the dozen vampires. No, it had been a stupid _stupid_ coincidence. Two vampires – a couple – had gone out to scout or something and were walking back, literally running into the wolves on their way back.

The vampires had frozen, but the wolves had immediately attacked, tearing them into pieces almost instantly, alerting the group of vampires at the same time. Of course, they tried running back to the res, but there were too many of them, they had even cut off their route home, Leah thought it was a miracle that they were all still alive.

"There's nothing we can do, I'm sorry Leah, Seth," Sam said solemnly. "We have to stay and protect our tribe, we just can't take the chance of going there and leaving everyone here vulnerable."

Leah felt the all too familiar urge to kick Sam right in the balls. Only this time, she also felt defeated. Besides her, Seth wasn't looking too good either. He looked extremely somber, which _wasn't_ familiar on him at all. It made her lose a lot of hope.

Jacob. Embry. Quil. She would miss them so much. If they somehow survived this, she'd never be a bitch to them again, she might even tell them how much she loved them. Maybe.

Either way, she wasn't going to stay and follow Sam's pack. She had her own pack, and she was beta of that pack. That meant something. Even if she wasn't beta, she would never abandon her pack.

She looked toward Seth and they nodded together, determined to do whatever they could. They were probably going to die, but they didn't have any other choice. They would have to try anyways. They would always stand besides their pack.

Seth must have caught on to her train of thought. "Whatever it takes," he agreed. It was a bad moment for it, but she'd never felt prouder.

"You both won't get there in enough time to do anything," Sam said firmly. "It would be a waste when we could use your help defending. You'd probably only get stranded just like them."

"It doesn't matter. I would at least try for anyone I love," Leah said, almost punching him in the face. She barely stopped herself. "You would only do it for Emily, but I would do it for Harry _and_ anyone else..." she trailed off, an idea hitting her. She whirled around and grabbed onto Seth's shoulders, feeling an extreme amount of hope. "Harry!" she screamed at her brother. "Harry!"

Seth looked at her wide eyed and more than a touch scared. "Um. I'm sure he's fine..."

"No! Shut up, Seth," she told him on, on instinct. "He can teleport us there!"

Her brother's eyes lit up. "Yes! Harry! Go call him, go-go-go-go!" he said and pushed her toward the door.

"The cell phone isn't out there, Seth!"

"Okay! Let's look for it!" Seth screamed and jumped inside, overturning Sam's couch and all his chairs, looking underneath things, and making everything a mess. He even went and threw things that he'd already upturned, to go look under that spot.

Leah stopped for a second to just gawk at her brother, and then reminded herself she was wasting precious seconds. Plus it was Sam's stuff, that was just hilarious.

She quickly took the phone out of her pocket – the most obvious place – and called Harry.

"Hullo, Le-"

She interrupted him quickly. "Me and Seth are at Sam's and we need you to get here and teleport us somewhere! Hurry, people are dying man! Hurr-"

_Crack._

She felt a damp Harry land on top of her. With no shirt on. She licked her lips for a second.

"Harry!" Seth screamed happily. "Take us to Jacob. Go-go-go-go-"

"Shut up, Seth!" Leah screamed. "Okay, Harry. Shit. How do I show you where we need to go..." She tried to think quickly if Jacob had showed her any signs or anything to tell him and see if he miraculously knew the place.

"I hope you don't hate me for this later, but here." She saw Harry point his wand at her. She trusted him completely so she just stood straight and waited for whatever he was going to do. "_Legilimens,"_ she heard him whisper.

The only thing was, that it sounded from far away. It was like she retreated into her own mind and was having an out of body experience. She felt something go through her brain, searching. It wasn't the most pleasant of sensations, but it wasn't exactly painful. Whatever was happening, her mind was going through hundreds of memories extremely quickly, barely touching on them before she found herself on the next one. Almost all of them were of Harry, of course. That was practically all her mind thought of lately.

This went on until her mind focused very clearly on the memory of Jacob frantically telling her not to come after him.

The presence in her mind left after that.

"What in the hell was _that_?" Leah asked Harry, with a very small headache.

"I'm so sorry," Harry said, grimacing. "I went through your mind to try to find where Jacob was."

"Oh. I don't mind," Leah told him quickly. "Did you see anything else?"

"Err." He blushed a bit. That didn't reassure her at all. "Whatever you saw just now, I saw it as well."

"So all those thoughts about you, you saw them all?" she asked him, to which he got a sheepish nod. "I don't mind. You already know how much I love you."

His smile was beautiful. It was relieved and happy and so full of love and -

"Jesus fucking Christ! We all fucking know you love your fucking imprint Leah. Now there are fucking people that are dying out there!" Seth screamed and then breathed loudly.

Leah stared at him with wide, surprised, and slightly impressed, eyes. So he _was_ a Clearwater after all.

"He's right," Harry nodded. He took both of their arms and turned. The last thing she saw was Sam's frustrated face. It almost made her giggle.

Of course, almost was the key word, since what she felt after, most definitely didn't make he want to giggle. She felt as if she was being squeezed through a tube, like toothpaste. It wasn't pleasant. It didn't even feel like proper toothpaste squeezing. No one grabbed her and gently rolled her from the bottom so that she came out the top in a nice even way. No, she felt like Harry had taken her and punched right in the middle of the tube so that she would just rocket out of the hole and splatter everywhere.

Really, she would have to show him the right technique later, she didn't think her imprint was one of _those_ people.

Thankfully, she came out in one piece and showed up on top of a hill overlooking everything. She looked to the side to see Seth on the ground just like her, except he was dry heaving. "Does it always feel like that?" he gasped out.

"You get used to it." Harry had started running his wand on his eyes, probably making them see farther. She looked toward where he was looking and saw Jacob and his two best friends being chased by about five vampires. There were more behind those five, but they looked like the only ones quick enough to run behind the wolves.

The scary thing was though, that none of the vampires were tiring, while the wolves were quite clearly very tired, bleeding and limping slightly in Quil's case. Jacob was behind them, occasionally taking a snap behind him to get the vampires to back off. They weren't going to last long like that.

"Let's go!" Seth said and phased, ripping all his clothes.

"Stop!" Leah said. "Show everything to Jacob, but do not leave. We'll get murdered right now if we go."

Seth growled at her, but obeyed.

"I don't know what to do either Seth," Harry said with a frown. "Most of them aren't newborns either. I can't just levitate them easily or anything. It'll be harder for me to kill them as well."

"What do you mean?" Leah said frantically. "I thought newborns were stronger?" She asked worriedly. "Aren't they? Don't they get weaker after their own blood that they haven't stolen runs out?"

"I'm not completely sure about you guys, it was pretty complicated. I _do _know that, magically, the older the stronger though, they gain more magical resistance," Harry started explaining and then stopped. "We'll talk about this later. We need a game plan."

Seth immediately barked his agreement.

Leah tried to put her mind to work, but it was still pretty firmly set on this new revelation. From what it sounded like, it didn't affect her fighting much. It affected _Harry_ though, so it might as well affect her. If he wasn't such a stubborn little imprint she would tell him to stay back and not fight.

They had argued about it countless times though, and it was pretty clear that she wasn't going to change his mind. Plus, if she was being honest, he _could_ sort of kick her ass, and her whole pack was in danger... so she'd have to swallow down her worry for now. It would be terribly hypocritical of her anyways.

Although that didn't really affect her decision at all.

"How about..." Harry's voice brought her back to the present, also making her frustrated that she wasn't thinking of a plan. "_Seth_ goes runs with the three wolves, give them pause that more are coming while we come up with something better to do?" Harry asked them.

Seth immediately barked his consent and moved to go.

"No!" Leah objected, both because she didn't want to potentially send Seth to his doom, and because _she_ wanted to go. "That's insane... That's.."

"The best we got," Harry said firmly. "I can't apparate them away while they're still wolves, and there won't be enough time for them to phase and then do it. The vampires would kill us. Plus I need time for double apparition, it takes a lot of concentration," he admitted a little sheepishly.

Leah stared at him in defeat, not being able to dispute any of it. Seth took that as her consent and ran full speed towards the others. She watched as he moved his direction a little, so that he was running toward a spot _ahead_ of the wolves, neatly avoiding getting attacked before he could catch up. Smart.

She was faintly impressed with his thinking. The plan also worked exactly as Harry had said. When Seth showed up seemingly out of nowhere, the five vampires backed off for a few minutes, clearly trying to come up with a better plan, just like Harry and Leah. Seth would switch off with Jacob in swiping backwards and giving them room, not really gaining ground, but not losing anymore as Jacob had been.

Assured of the plan working, Leah turned back to Harry and matched his thoughtful face.

They thought and thought, bouncing and striking down ideas, but came up with nothing that they were completely sure of. Most of their plans were completely crazy to the point of being suicidal, and the rest were very unlikely to actually work before her whole pack was decimated.

There were a few moments were they almost shouted at each other, only refraining because they didn't want to give away their positions. She steadfastly refused Harry going anywhere below a mile above the ground on his broom, but ended up compromising on half a mile, which he had better follow. He was also being completely unreasonable, not agreeing to letting her attack them straight on, which she was sure would work.

The only thing they had to rely on was the speed both of them had to lure one at a time and try to take them on individually. Harry would be high above her, protecting her, while she would use her strength to rip them apart. The newborns wouldn't be too difficult for him to kill, while the older ones were easier for her. Those were more magically resistant, apparently, something that they would have to talk about later, since it seemed pretty important.

It wasn't the best plan, but it was the only one that didn't assure them both killed, while hopefully giving them enough time to actually help.

Before Leah phased, she took Harry by the head and crashed her lips on his, tasting his blood from where she probably made his lip hit his teeth. It didn't seem to bother him since he kissed her just as hard, grabbing her body and crashing it into his. She pressed herself against him harder before very reluctantly backing off. As she backed away a few steps, they didn't break eye contact, which they kept until she phased. He quickly got on his broom afterward, rocketing upwards, and flying high enough above her that she could barely see his face. He should be safe up there.

He better be.

Leah took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself.

"Good luck, Leah," Quil thought through his pain.

"Love you sis."

"You're taking over if I don't make it," Jacob tried to joke.

She ignored them all.

"Come and get some fagots!" She screamed in her mind, howling loudly to attract attention. As soon as she was done, she tensed, her body already knowing that she was no longer safely hidden.

She looked up at Harry, hoping that he would give her some kind of signal, and he threw her a thumbs up, flying off away from where her pack was. It worked, they were after her. She ran away as quickly as she could to where Harry was flying, eventually having to slow down less she overtook him. She ran straight through all types of bushes and plants, tearing through them to leave a path while barely feeling them. Her paws were pounding loudly, not bothering with stealth, encouraging more vampires to break off and come after her.

Finally, after almost a minute of a fairly slow run – for her - the first vampire made an appearance. He looked like a newborn, in both appearance and behavior. Not only did it try to take her on by itself, meaning that he probably didn't have any kind of restraint yet, but it lunged at her about fifty feet, leaving a few seconds where he was completely vulnerable, not being able to hit the ground and switch directions.

She splayed he claws on the ground on the next step, preparing to swipe at it when it reached her. She zeroed in on its neck, hoping she could behead him and take him out for a good while.

She needn't have bothered.

Harry had quickly brought up a wall of fire next to her, on her right, long before the vampire would reach her. She could feel the heat coming off, but it wasn't nearly close enough to have been a danger for her. What came through the other side of the wall was only a small part of a torso, all extremities looked to have already been burned off. It was on fire, so Leah only batted at it, throwing it to the side, where it kept burning, not bothering to tear it into more pieces.

She grinned at the small victory, hoping the rest of the fight would be that easy.

The other wolves cheered them on.

The second and third vampires were a much closer thing. They came together from opposite sides, momentarily catching her off guard, being a bit too confident from the last vampire. After the small pause, which really didn't affect much, she and Harry had both tried to attack the same side, causing some fumbling.

To be fair, it was probably her fault. He had sprung up the wall of fire on the same side as last time. Leah though, went for the farther of the two vampires. She had assumed that he would get the closest one, which was on the other side of her as the fire, so that she would have more time with the other one. Bad teamwork.

His way made more sense though both because it was the same as last time, and because it would be better to know earlier if the vampire didn't fall for the fire trick.

So, like a dumbass, she almost ran right into the very fire that was supposed to protect her. She had barely sprung back in time before hitting it, tripping in the process. It caused the farther vampire to sail right above her and crash into the fire as well. They were both burning by the time she got up and started running again, though she could see that the limbs were still there, even if extremely mangled. She was fine for now, but that had been a close one.

This time Harry went a lot faster, probably trying to give her a reprieve from fighting, or trying to come up with a plan. She decided to follow his lead, since he could actually see what was happening.

She had been following Harry straight on for a few minutes when he made a sudden hard left turn. She turned sharply with him, absentmindedly enjoying the feel of her claws making deep gashes on the dirt. But then he turned left again, this time completely stopping after a second.

What the hell was going on?

She barked at him loudly, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and then made a decision. She took off. She couldn't sit still, she'd be a sitting duck. What the hell was he thinking, just sitting still like that, anyways? He had also made two left turns, making her face directly at where they had starting running away from, so she turned back again and took off in the original direction that they were running. She hoped she was going the right way, because Harry was now trying to catch up to her, it looked like.

He was flying so fast that he had caught up to her quickly and was now flying right above her. That made her feel better. Maybe he had wanted her to take the lead? She'd try to if something happened. Maybe if she smelled-

Her heart stopped in her chest when she looked up and saw Harry dive down toward her. In range of the vampires.

What the _fuck _was he doing?

* * *

Harry grimaced. They had almost taken her down because of bad teamwork. They had both attacked the same side. To be fair, it was probably his fault. He should have sprung up the fire on the vampire that was closest, giving her more time with the other one, but he was a little too scared that it would somehow get through, and wanted to give her more of a warning if it did.

He kept going forward after that, shaking off the mistake like he was taught to do at the auror academy. He had been taught a very valuable lesson after the first mistake he did: If you make a mistake, you're the last person that deserves a pity party.

It would have saved him a lot of time back at Hogwarts and during the Horcrux hunt.

Checking on Leah again, he saw that there were still six vampires behind her. They were all running pretty closely together, making it easy for him to avoid ambushes while guiding Leah. The other three were the fastest, so they had tried to take her on by themselves. Big mistake. His wolf was too strong. He'd kill anyone who tried anyways.

On second thought, that was probably a wrong assumption, they might not have been the fastest. The only thing that it proved was that they were the _dumbest_, since they went ahead by themselves.

He looked back again, only to see just three vampires running behind her. Where were the rest? He looked around as fast as he could, absentmindedly feeling like he was back on a quidditch pitch looking for the snitch. He saw them on the right, jumping from tree to tree. They were just as fast jumping that way than running. One blond girl might even be faster that way, using smaller branches as swings with her hands.

Maybe she'd been a gymnast before she got turned? It didn't matter, he'd kill her for attacking his wolf. She was probably a prissy gymnastics bitch anyways, they all were back in muggle school.

He turned sharply left to try to get Leah away from them. She followed perfectly, not losing a beat. He smiled down at her, taking a second to admire her stride. Then he saw the vampires switch positions so the ones previously behind her now tried to flank her left up in the trees, while the ones previously on the trees dropped and followed behind her.

Cursing, he wondered how the fuck they were even that coordinated. They were all moving too fast for him to catch their faces and discern exactly who was the leader, but he got a clue by seeing who was the one yelling the most.

Seeing them switch off again once they caught up, he turned sharply left again. They did the same.

If he didn't think of something soon, they would definitely catch her. He was thinking on what to do, when the people behind her went to her right and try to get her from both sides. They had gone far enough to the sides that he had an idea.

He stopped sharply, Leah following him perfectly again. He waited until the vampires had almost passed her, not being able to stop himself from admiring how well Leah could follow. When the time came, he turned back, ready to skip right through their ambush. He looked down to make sure she was okay, when he couldn't see her.

She wasn't following.

He started panicking, looking everywhere for her, even back to the vampires. She was there, right between them, probably having kept going after he stopped too long.

She was running straight at the ambush.

"Fuck!"

Frantically, he kicked his broom, making him flip upside down, where he swung himself so he was upright. He then laid all the way down on his broom, his chest touching the grip, and his legs holding on tightly.

He threw all of the magic he could immediately gather at his broom, shooting forward dangerously fast. He'd never flown this fast, but he had to catch up to the fastest wolf ever. The broom was rattling against him painfully, banging against his knees and chest..

Flying as hard as he could, air stinging against his skin, he caught up with her just in time to see the vampires get within a hundred yards of her. There wasn't much he could do from up there. Even if he put all his power into it and threw a shield at her, they would break right through it. If he tried to conjure his stronger ring of fire around her, he would probably only kill a couple of them at most. Leaving at least half to tear at her.

A brief picture of a vampire going through the fire came up. It was grabbing her by her neck and squeezing. Harry growled in his mind, wanting nothing other than to kill all of them with his bare hands.

He would _destroy _them.

The next image came up, her neck angled wrongly, complete with the sound of an unnaturally loud pop. The pop of her neck breaking, after which the vampire dropped her. She laid on the ground, limp, unmoving.

He had never thought of anything so painful.

Seeing red, he looked down again. Leah was still running below him, taking long strides that would take him minutes to go through on foot. She was so beautiful as a wolf. Besides her naked, this was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. That calmed him down some, and he recognized his choices. He could stay up there and shoot them down from up there with all his might, or go down there and risk dying with her.

He didn't even think about it.

Pushing down on the end of his broom, he quickly dropped below the tall treeline, already weaving and flipping through all the branches.

He was going to save her.

They weren't going to touch her. They weren't going to hurt her. Not while he was there. She wouldn't be hurt. _She would not die_.

Whatever that picture was that he just saw, whatever made him see that, he would stop it. Whatever he needed to do, whatever happened, he would stop that.

No matter what it took.

Just as he cleared the lowest of the branches, he saw two of the vampires get a hold of her legs. His magic screamed with fury through his body, his arm already casting.

* * *

Leah growled in her throat when she saw him dropping height, already planning on hurting him when this was over.

She shook her head to the sides, her mind even more on edge now that he was about to become vulnerable... and then she saw it.

What Harry had probably seen. Six vampires. On the trees.

It was probably one of the creepiest things she'd ever seen. How they kept jumping from tree to tree, twisting their bodies in impossible poses to push off again. They used every available limb to go faster, even pushing off with their head sometimes. They were screaming things at each other, but Leah couldn't possibly give less of a shit what they were saying.

Not while Harry was coming down to them.

Seeing how close the vampires were now, she tried to stop and run the other way – with a passing thought about how that's what Harry was probably trying to do before. Her front paws dug into the earth and she felt her ass go up in the air, losing purchase on the ground and threatening to flip her. Thankfully she didn't, and she slowed down enough that her back legs dropped to the floor, but that mistake made her vulnerable, and the vampires saw it.

They descended on her, all six of them.

It was one of the first times she had ever felt scared, and she froze from the fear. She couldn't see any way that she would come out of this alive, not with six different sets of fangs were coming straight at her. She tensed even more, awaiting her death.

Insanely, illogically, she took her eyes off the incoming enemy, to look at her imprint one last time. She sincerely hoped that he would get the hell out of there once she died, and not die with her. That he would have a nice life. Maybe he could get back together with Ginny. Well, he could probably do better. Yeah, if she was going to die, he better at least get someone worthy of succeeding her.

She must have cracked already.

She howled up at him to leave her, save himself.

Looking at his face, though, completely shattered her hopes. He did not look like he would be backing down safely any time soon. His expression was angry, and had a stubborn set to his jaw that was more pronounced than she'd ever seen it.

Shit.

He wasn't going to go back. He was going to fight until he died. And with her dying soon, she wouldn't be able to help him.

Two pairs of hands grabbed at two of her paws.

They would kill her, and then they would go after Harry. She had sworn to protect him, and after they killed her, they would kill him, and she would have failed.

Fury rose up, stronger than she'd ever felt it. They were going to touch _her imprint_. She pictured it briefly, them biting at his neck, draining him empty. Him laying on the ground, pale from blood loss, his neck broken.

No.

_Never._

She would never let that happen. He was not going to die. _Not if she could help it._

With a roar that was more a desperate shriek, she flailed as hard as she could, slipping from their grasp and catching a couple of them with her swipes.

It wasn't going to be enough, the rest were already lunging at her. Well, before she died, she would take out as many as she could, making it that much easier for Harry.

But she never got to.

A yellow light, so bright that it was almost white, hit the ground next to her, only a few feet away from hitting her. Then the tornado came, the same as the one that Harry used to protect that one vampire girl.

Only this time, it wasn't gentle at all. It didn't push her back nicely.

No, she could feel the wind raging around her, even though she was in the eye of it, where she was sure it was a lot safer. Even then, she had to grip the ground with her claws to stop from spinning like a top.

When she looked up, when it finally finished, the first thing she saw was Harry standing protectively in front of her, one arm holding his broom and the other his wand. Past him, it looked like a hurricane had hit – if she wasn't so frantic, she would have made fun of herself for stating the obvious – most of the trees around her were thrown around, pulled up by the root. It looked like chaos.

The sounds of Harry's heavy breathing and the trees moving themselves brought her out of her leisurely gazing. She had let herself relax for a second, but she tensed up again when she saw the vampires come out of the rubble, completely unscathed.

Fuck.

It was a good thing that Harry had a plan, because she was starting to freak out again.

He pointed forward with his wand sharply, causing a bubble of blue to come around both of them. In front of him, there was a hole in the bubble, giving way to what looked like a tube. She looked at it, her hopes rising, recognizing it for what it was.

A pathway, a safe pathway for them run through.

"Go!" Harry shouted at her, already accelerating on his own broom.

She didn't need to be told twice, she sprinted through the opening, watching in satisfaction as the vampires bounced off the shield while lunging at them.

A few more strides and she couldn't make out the vampires through the trees anymore. Allowing herself to relax just a tiny amount, she finally felt the pain in her paw let itself be known.

Now that she wasn't so saturated with adrenaline, she could feel that one of the smaller bones on it was out of place, and it was grinding painfully every time that she took a step. She gritted her teeth and kept going, trying not to let it slow her down.

She could tell it was though, especially when Harry pulled ahead of her and then looked back at her in concern. He slowed down and pointed his wand at her with a look that was puzzled. Not being able to speak, she couldn't tell him it was her paw, so he was probably wracking his brain on what was wrong with her.

It was probably especially hard for him to do while avoiding trees, but her imprint _was_ amazing, so he tried anyways. He didn't get to do more than take a few glances at her though, when they broke through the top of a gentle hill, showing that the other side was a lot sparser on trees.

The advantage of the thinner vegetation was the increased vision, as they were now able to see more than a dozen yards. It let them see their enemy, and could finally recognize that they had gone up on the trees again, and had somehow overtaken them – probably because of her limping.

The disadvantage was that the enemy could see _them_, too.

She looked up at Harry, for a clue on what to do, since they were outnumbered pretty badly. Based on how heavily he was breathing before, she didn't think Harry would be able to protect them with shields forever. Something had to give.

Harry was too busy to give her any kind of hints, and her paw was bothering more than she would ever admit. She felt as if the bone kept grinding away at the rest faster than it was healing. It was becoming extremely painful.

Naturally, she wasn't going to let that stop her if they were attacked or anything, but her thoughts were mainly filled with pain, not planning.

Harry started to make up for her after only a second. He was still flying through all the branches while he tried to throw as many fireballs as he could toward the vampires. His arm was a continuous blur of motion as more and more fire shot out of his wand, the other hand making small motions on his broom to steer it. It was a _seriously_ impressive show of multitasking.

That wasn't what struck her mind the most though. It was his face, a mask of anger that looked very out of place there. She didn't think he'd ever been angry around her, not _truly _angry_._ The worst she'd seen was when she would mouth off vampires, but even then it was more disappointed than angry.

His face was an ugly visage of pure hate. If she couldn't tell he was angry by his face, his choppy movements would have alerted her as well. His casting wasn't nearly as smooth as it usually was.

She looked back at the vampires, hoping to see them all dying from the fireballs, but she saw them all alive. At least now she knew what he was talking about in regards to the older vampires and magic.

Most of the vampires were avoiding the fire, diving away whenever one came close. The obvious newborns, who looked like they were still a bit clumsy, would burn and drop screaming when they got hit, showing they were in intense pain. They jumped right back into it though, putting the fires out with their speed, sometimes with their skin still smoking and chunks of their bodies missing.

The older ones looked like they would be about Carlisle's age at least, maybe older. They would scream in pain, and their skin would burn briefly, but they wouldn't be burning for long. They also never lost chunks when hit, they merely had burn spots on them. Leah wasn't sure if those could be healed, but she hoped not. These vampires would avoid the fire as much as they could, but didn't dive whenever they came near.

There was one that was quite obviously veryold, having a very fine chalky appearance on his skin and eyes. That vampire... he was fucking _scary_. He didn't even bother dodging the fireballs.

He would just slap them away.

If you couldn't burn a vampire, what the fuck do you do? Leah hoped they lived long enough for her to be able to ask Harry.

The oldest, who she thought was the leader, had been throwing things at Harry to try and kill him, but he had cast some kind of shield around himself, stopping everything from hitting him. Nothing was getting through. The leader had tried rocks, dirt, wood, leaves... Everything he could, he threw at Harry. Nothing worked.

Leah was starting to get hope that they would get to throw enough fire for the vampires to _eventually_ die, but her hopes were crushed fairly quickly when the leader finally succeeded in getting through the shield.

He had gotten frustrated, and tore off the hand of a newborn, whose hand was dangling uselessly from the wrist being nearly burned off, only hanging by a thread. The leader threw the hand at Harry in frustration, not expecting it to do anything. Harry though, seemed to know that it would, in fact, go through his shield, because he jerked upward and tried to dodge.

It wasn't completely successful.

The hand was flying much too quickly, being thrown by a vampire, and grazed Harry's broom, making it chip a splinter off the bottom. She saw Harry look down at it with a panicked face and panicked herself on instinct. Both of his hands were now on the broom, and he was hanging on for dear life. He seemed to be constantly pulling up on it, by the tension on his biceps. If she thought right, that meant that he was trying to go up. Which meant the broom wasn't responding. Which meant that it wanted to go down and crash. Which meant he couldn't go up to escape. Which meant... _Fuck._

With Harry pulling up on the broom, the fireballs had stopped coming, and Leah now recognized that it was that fire that was holding the vampires back. The leader then screamed something at his allies – or whatever the fuck they were. It was in a strange language she didn't know, maybe it was Latin. Whatever language it was, the command seemed simple enough based on their actions.

Attack.

All six of them converged on them at once, two from the front, and two from each of the sides. On the sides, one from each pair dropped down to the floor, probably splitting off so that they could attack her and Harry at the same time.

They were fucked.

As if in slow motion, she locked eyes with Harry, who was now flying directly above her. She saw him look quickly down at the broken broom and then back at her with a determined expression.

Whatever it was that happened in that moment, whether it was the adrenaline or just something she imagined, she felt connected to him in a way she never had before. In a way that none of the other wolves felt with their imprints either. She instantly got exactly what he meant to do, and she agreed with him. It was almost as if reading each others minds, and she recognized he felt it too.

Just as two vampires lunged from the ground at her, two vampires jumped from the trees at him. Leah and Harry moved at the same time. Leah jumped as high as she could, feeling the dislodged bone on her paw pop back into place, jumping over both of the vampires who crashed into each other.

At the same time, Harry flipped his broom upside down pushing off it with his legs. The broom rocketed upwards into the trees, while Harry used the momentum of the turn to flip himself right side up again. The two vampires that jumped at him also crashed into each other, and dropped on top of the other two, making a crashing sound when they landed.

Leah and Harry met in mid air, with Harry instantly locking his legs around her as if she was the broom he had just been riding. His weight on top of her felt familiar, even though they'd never done this before.

It felt right, being connected like that. She felt stronger, faster.

She felt _whole_.

The other two vampires came up in front of them before they dropped back on the ground. One of them the ancient one.

There were no miscommunications this time. Harry easily let go a veritable wall of fireballs at the younger vampire, that was actually only the second oldest. Most of them burning the vampire only a little, but mostly pushing him back. Later, she would recognize it was only a distraction, because he also threw one last one behind them all, a really powerful one that almost burned a hole straight through the vampire's stomach.

On the other side, all Leah had to do was a simple swipe in mid air and the ancient vampire went flying.

She landed on her feet lightly, Harry's weight on her not feeling heavy at all, and she poured on the speed. Oddly enough, with Harry on top of her, she was running faster than ever before. There was a quick thought from Quil that if this was a different situation he would have made a joke out of it.

With Harry safe on top of her, and with Quil's thought getting through, she finally relaxed enough to remember she had a pack that she was doing all this to protect.

She checked in on them again, finally paying attention to something other than Harry and herself, to see that they were still being chased. Quil's leg was still bothering him, and both Jacob and Seth were getting very tired of swiping at the vampires behind them. Embry had taken point, just in case, leaving Quil nicely protected on all sides. They didn't have much time left, but they could hold out until she could do something. They had less than ten on them, and ten on four wasn't_ complete_ suicide for them. They could hold out for a little while.

Leah barked at Harry. She was going to try and help the others. They could probably put up a good defense while Harry acted as the offensive fire.

Harry must have caught her message, or was just on the same wavelength. Maybe they were still connected by whatever happened earlier. "Let's go help Jacob and the rest. I charmed myself so don't worry about me falling off," he said softly with a hint of a smirk on his voice. She almost smiled, looking forward to turning sharply with him on top, hoping to scare him a little.

She heard Harry say one more thing, this time with determination, "Don't worry about us, let's go help the pack. No one is getting through us."

Leah couldn't help herself, he probably looked extremely sexy right now. "Ugh, Leah, not now," Seth whined. She ignored him and twisted her head back to look at him.

She was wrong. He was beyond sexy. He looked fucking _awe inspiring_.

His free hand was in front of him, softly glowing blue. It looked ready to defend, the blue probably being magic ready to throw up shield on demand.

On his other hand, he held his wand cocked back, as if to throw it. Or more aptly, crack a whip. Which is exactly what he had. A black whip connected to the end of his wand, ready to slay some vampires. The best part? It was made out of fire. Black fire that seemed to suck the light out around it like a black hole.

If she wasn't in the middle of a fight she would have shifted and fucked him on the forest floor.

"If he wasn't your imprint, I would too," Embry agreed, extremely impressed.

"Not because he's a guy?" Quil snickered through the pain.

"If you didn't have an imprint, you would agree," he replied haughtily.

"I don't have an imprint and I still don't agree," Seth piped in, thinking Embry might really be gay. Embry scoffed back, and she stopped paying attention to them.

She quickly caught up to the other wolves, Harry splitting a vampire in half who tried to break off from Jacob's pursuers. They would come back and kill it later, it didn't look like it'd be able to heal that any time soon.

"Guys. Let's start running back toward your house. It doesn't look like they'll attack any time soon," Harry said, still holding the fire whip in place.

"He's right," Jacob thought to them all. "Alright. Let's go."

They quickly turned back, catching two more vampires with the whip, since they hadn't been expecting them to do anything back. There was only a few left now, and Leah thought she could take them.

"There's only a few left, do you want to hunt them down, Leah?" She turned her head to look at him and saw him grinning at her. Her imprint was fucking badass.

She barked her agreement and that was settled. She broke off the pack and searched for any trails of the smell, planning on hunting them down one by one.

"Be careful, please, sis," Seth thought.

"Of course. Harry will protect me," Leah assured them, with just a tiny bit of girlish feelings at having her man protect her.

They didn't need to be. It was pitifully easy for them to hunt down the rest, and even gather the pieces they left behind. They burned everything quickly and efficiently, not even having to stop her stride since Harry would just cover the pieces with the purple flames. The only one that they didn't find, and Harry quickly told her not to bother, was the ancient vampire. She would have to talk to him about it anyways.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell us?!" Sam boomed at the Cullens' house. Leah watched him, a good dozen yards away, thinking about what a moron he was. She saw Harry shake his head next to her. He agreed.

All of the Cullens and the one vampire girl came out, looking alarmed. Bella was holding on to Nessie tightly, afraid that the wolves were there to attack them. Edward protectively hovered over them, just in case Sam really_ would _be stupid enough to attack them. Leah rolled her eyes.

"May I ask what-," Carlisle tried to ask, somehow still polite. Leah would have already kicked ass if someone shouted at her house like that.

Sam cut him off. "You didn't tell us! We went to fight the Volturi to protect _your_ family, and you didn't tell us!" Leah rolled her eyes again. Protect their family, _Right._ She remembered how much he insisted they kill all the Volturi regardless of whether the Cullens would fight them or not. Hypocrite.

"I assure you-," Edward tried to interject, seeing what they were all thinking so he could see exactly what kind of retarded shit went on in Sam's mind. Leah hoped that he saw how much an idiot she thought Sam was. Edward flashed her a smile, showing that he agreed. Leah retorted by thinking about Jake sodomizing Nessie, his daughter screaming in ecstasy and begging for more. Edward recoiled and then glared at her. She shrugged, she _had_ told him not to smile at her. It wasn't like they were going to be friends or something stupid like that.

"We have a treaty... rules... rules..." Sam kept going on about something. She quickly lost interest after his first three words.

Harry spoke up from beside her, "so what did you do to make Edward so mad at you?" He pointed at Edward.

"Err." She looked back at Edward. He was still glaring at her, looking more angry than she'd ever seen him. She'd never admit it, but it was kind of scary. He had never glared at her for _that_ long. "I might have thought about Jake and Nessie?"

Harry looked her with his eyebrows scrunched. "But you always do that... this time he looks particularly pissed."

She put on the most innocent expression she could. "I might have pictured them experimenting."

Harry looked back at her with an eyebrow raised. "Experimenting..." he repeated skeptically.

"Mhm."

"Experimenting how?" he asked, now clearly amused at her reluctance to answer the question.

"Um. Sodomy?" she winced, thinking she might have gone too far.

Harry looked at her with pity. He was probably about to reassure her that she was going to be fine and that he'd protect her no matter what. He would make her feel better and let her know he would be there for her either way.

"I think you went to far. You might want to watch your back now."

Of _course_ he wouldn't.

"You think he'll try to get me back?" she asked, a bit weary despite herself. They both looked back to Edward who stopped glaring to grin at her. It scared her more. He then walked to the girl that Harry had saved from them and spoke in her ear. She smiled just as much as he was.

"Bugger," Harry said.

"What? What are they gonna do?" Leah asked him worriedly.

"Just remember, Leah. This is all Edward's fault. Not mine," Harry told her quickly.

"What do you mean-"

"Harry!" the girl yelled, suddenly a foot away from them.

"Hi Courtney. How are you?" Harry greeted with a small smile.

Leah looked at them weirdly. Was she going to take revenge on her for Edward? That was rather cowardly of him. She glanced at him to see him sporting a very smug grin. Now she was doubly confused, she didn't think that he would smile at being called a coward. She looked back at the girl.

"I missed you Harry!" she exclaimed loudly. Leah narrowed her eyes. Then the girl reached up and kissed Harry on the cheek.

Oh _hell no_.

She made sure to picture herself ripping Edward's balls off and then setting them on fire in the bonfire in front of everyone, holding each one on a stick as if they were marshmallows. Edward's smile widened. The smug fucking bastard.

The girl called Courtney was now talking away, occasionally touching Harry in the arm or something that made Leah want to kill her all the more. Harry kept glancing at Leah with obvious worry in his eyes. He probably thought she was going to kill him too.

She hadn't made up her mind yet.

"Please don't kill them," Harry pleaded to her softly.

"Step. Away. From Harry." Leah ground out through clenched teeth at the girl.

The vampire whore looked at her surprised. "Oh! You must be Leah!" She grinned widely. She held out her hand for Leah to shake. "I'm Courtney. The vampire you tried to kill that day at the clearing," she smiled brightly, and then with her other hand reached into her pocket and stuck what looked like a strawberry candy in her mouth. She kept her hand out, waiting for Leah to shake it, sucking on the candy loudly all the while.

Leah just gawked at her. Was this girl serious? "I'm not shaking your hand. Step away from Harry."

"Leah..." Harry said, using his full force of his eyes on her. She almost caved, but thankfully she didn't shake hands with her.

"That's okay!" The vampire said, completely unfazed. "I'm so glad you guys are finally together," she said, surprising Leah. Then she glared at Harry, "You are together, right?"

"Yes, I've told you," Harry smiled brightly. Leah found herself warming up to her reluctantly. Harry seemed to like her, and she wanted them together, so that was an obvious plus...

"Good. Did she get jealous because I kissed you?"

None of the three of them said anything for a few seconds. Harry had closed his eyes and put a hand on his face. The vampire whore – she was again now a whore – was still smiling brightly, waiting for her answer.

Leah was shaking. She was struggling not to phase and kill her right there, because she was pretty sure it would start a fight, and Harry would probably get mad at her.

All three of them talked at the same time.

"Leah, _please_ don't kill anyone."

"I'm going to kill_ everyone_."

"Did I say something wrong?"

Both Leah and Harry gawked at the girl. She really thought she did nothing wrong?

"Courtney," Harry started out, looking at her with a bit of concern. Leah scowled at her hard, and then at Harry for good measure. "Why would you think that it would be okay to say that you kissed me in front of someone that I'm with, who would probably get jealous and try to kill you – someone who's _already_ tried to kill you?"

Leah thought he summed it up pretty nicely. If she wasn't glaring holes through the vampire, she would have smiled at him.

"Edward told me it would help you guys keep your relationship interesting," she said, cocking her head to the side and seeming puzzled.

Leah then heard Edward's laughter from far off. She was going to kill _everyone_.

She took a step to go and kill Edward and the vampire whore, when Harry grabbed her from behind and put his arms around her stomach. That calmed her, it felt nice.

"Let's just cut the drama, huh? We got Sam for that," he pointed towards Sam who was still raving toward Carlisle. "We need to stop this and get along. Okay?"

"Okay!" Courtney smiled widely. "Sisters?" she asked Leah, holding her arms out.

Leah just looked at her with all the disgust she felt. "You kissed my imprint. I don't want to be, _sisters_," she said the last word in the highest pitch she could, and mockingly threw her arms all over the place. "You kissed Harry. I want to _kill_ you," she spat out.

The vampire just stared at her, still smiling. There was something seriously wrong with that vampire.

"Leah." Harry was glaring at her. Harry was _actually_ glaring at her. Oh-oh. "She did it before she knew about you, and we weren't dating yet. She did everything she could afterward to convince me to date you. She's trying really hard to get along with you," he said pointedly, obviously leaving out that she wasn't doing the same.

She sighed, all the fight going out of her. "Fine," she grumbled, glaring at the ground, pouting petulantly.

Stupid vampires. Stupid Edward. Stupid imprinting not letting her fight back.

Harry sighed as well now. "I'm sorry. It's just that... we're not blaming the right person!" he exclaimed, putting some cheer into his voice.

Leah's ears perked up at that. So she _could_ blame someone. That would make it all better. "It's all Courtney's fault right?"

Harry rolled his eyes at her. "No. I would want to kill anyone that kissed you as well, but I can't go and kill everyone that did it _before_ we dated, now can I?" he asked rhetorically. She decided to ignore the sentiment.

"Of course you can," she immediately disagreed. "I would even find it hot," she smiled at him. "So can I kill the whore now?"

She looked at Harry now. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the whore looking at Harry expectantly, with a smile still on her face. Ugh, it was harder and harder to hate her.

"Stop calling her names," he scolded gently. "She won't try anything again. Right Courtney?" Harry and Leah both looked at her expectantly.

"I won't try anything without her permission," she said. Leah wasn't completely happy with that answer, but it seemed honest enough.

"See. No threat there." Harry smiled at her tentatively.

"Fine. But I'm never giving permission." She glared at the girl, to which she just shrugged. "And no more kissing on the cheek, that makes me kill you."

"Sure. Hugs?" the vampire asked.

"Never," Leah immediately responded. Harry stared at her with an unimpressed look. "Fine. Can't last more than a second though," she conceded, pouting.

Harry laughed at that. The girl just hugged him, thankfully for less than a second or Leah would have killed her.

"Okay, now. You guys realize we can't just let this go, right?" Harry said, to which Leah immediately agreed. She knew her imprint would make up for it.

"What? What's wrong?" Courtn- the whore - said. Leah sighed, she didn't wanna like her.

"Well, because you said that you kissed me, Leah almost killed you. If she wasn't so nice and perfect," Leah smiled winningly, forgiving him instantly at the first compliment, "she could have at the very least stopped you from ever speaking to me, and I couldn't completely blame her... it's sort of her right as a girlfriend now."

Courtney's face changed from smiling for the first time, she looked completely horrified. She must really be scared of not speaking to him anymore. And Leah had the power to make that happen. She almost cackled. She wouldn't actually stop Harry from speaking to anyone because Harry wouldn't like it, but she liked having that kind of power over her.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Harry!" Courtney wailed in despair. Wow, now Leah even felt a little bad for her.

"Err. I won't do that..." Leah mumbled. God, she disgusted herself. So weak.

They both smiled at her gratefully, making her feel a little better. Well, Harry doing it made her feel better.

"I don't blame you though, Courtney. You didn't know," Harry said to her. Leah disagreed, it was her fault. "Leah doesn't blame you either," Now she completely disagreed, and scowled to show it. "She doesn't, she just _thinks_ she does."

Leah raised an eyebrow at that, begging him to explain. She would love to hear this one. "You see," Harry started out, putting a finger up as if he was lecturing, "Who told you to come here and say that?" He didn't wait for the answer. "Edward. We all blame Edward, not you."

Ah, her imprint was completely right, like always. She _did_ blame Edward above all. It should have been obvious that her imprint was right, she'd never doubt him again. She smiled at Courtney and Harry to show her agreement. "So, we need revenge?" she said hopefully.

"Yup!" Harry agreed. Now they were planning revenge together. This might be one of the hottest things they could do. Her imprint kept raising the bar every time he did something. "I have one too, if you agree Courtney."

"Of course! He almost made me lose you. He's going down," she growled with a fierce expression. _Whoa there_, Leah thought, she'd never though the perpetually smiling girl could do that. Now they were getting somewhere.

"Nessie needs sexual education soon, right? Who better than you, Courtney," he smiled at her. "Make sure to give her a complete education, the more you teach her the better."

"Oral?" Courtney asked. Leah smiled widely.

"At least," Harry nodded.

"Sodomy?"

"Definitely," Harry nodded again. Leah laughed happily

"Bondage?" Courtney fired off.

"Especially Bondage," Leah immediately replied, definitely cackling now.

"And whenever you do scenarios, make sure to do it with her and Jacob," Harry helpfully added.

"Oh! And orgies. Don't forget orgies," Leah reminded, her face now truly full of evil.

"Hmm. I've got some experience with those. How about gay sex? I was pretty good at eating a girl out before I turned," Courtney said with a big smile. Leah and Harry both gawked.

"_Really?_" Leah asked interestedly. She couldn't help herself.

"Of course. I can show you if you'd like?" the girl asked her, looking down at her crotch. She caught Harry's breathing speed up.

"Don't even dream about it Harry," she warned him.

"Oh phooey," Courtney said, not seeming sad at all. "If you ever change your mind I have a lot of experience with threesomes. I like you both already, I would love to join you."

Leah sputtered. Harry sighed as if this was normal. "We really shouldn't talk about sex around Courtney," Harry wisely said.

"Yeah, you guys probably shouldn't," Courtney agreed, still brightly.

Harry tried to move past that, "Err. Let's just get back on track. Just teach her everything you know, Courtney."

Her eyes widened comically. "_Everything_? That could take a few days..."

Both Leah and Harry's eyes bugged out. For her to be a relatively new born vampire and have that much knowledge... maybe Leah wasn't completely wrong when she called her a whore.

"Ok, just an intermediate level. We don't want Edward to try and kill us for real," Harry said, staring at Courtney in concern.

"Alright!" she agreed. Leah guessed she could tolerate her a little. After all, she was taking revenge on the mind-rapist. Plus Harry liked her, so that made her a little bit better than the other vampires.

God, she was so _whipped_.

"You know Harry. Sometimes this imprinting is really annoying. I _want_ to hate her. I _really_ want to hate her. You liking her makes me not hate her," she complained, pouting at Harry so that he would fix it.

He didn't. Although what he said did make her feel better about it.

"It works both ways, Leah. I don't normally dislike anyone, but I can't help but almost hate Sam. I also love your brother and mother for no reason other than you do," he tenderly grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers.

She contentedly sighed and put her head on his shoulder. "Good."

"Besides," he continued, "I'm pretty sure you would like her anyways, you've a lot in common with her," he commented.

"What? We both want to fuck you?" she asked him, delighting in his body's response. His breathing picked up, and she felt more heat on top of her head, coming from his face.

He cleared his throat, trying to ignore it. He would probably get her back for that. "You both dislike Bella the most."

"You do?" Leah asked her, the respect in her voice coming out even when she tried to hide it.

"Of course," Courtney made a face. "She's so..."

"Needy? Dependent?" Leah offered excitedly, too happy to finally have someone to talk shit about Bella with to remember who it was.

"Yes!" Courtney, her new best friend, agreed vehemently. "But that's not even the worst part!" she complained loudly.

"There's more?" Leah gasped dramatically, enjoying herself far too much.

"Yes!" Courtney nodded with wide eyes, looking completely scandalized. "She's such a prude!"

Leah snorted so hard she covered her mouth in case something came out. "Really?" she asked, just to hear more.

"Yes! She doesn't do _anything_," Courtney told them with a disgusted face. "And she talks about even less."

"What, she won't take it up the ass or something?" Leah asked her, trying to account for what Courtney would think prude means. Harry just rolled his eyes next to her, used to her language by now.

Courtney scoffed. "The last time I even said sodomy, Bella acted like I had raped her daughter or something," she shook her head. "No, she won't do _anything_ except for missionary, and she won't kiss anywhere below the neck!" Courtney threw her hands up in frustration, looking as if the chasteness personally offended her.

Leah snickered. Maybe that was revenge enough for Edward.

They spent a few more minutes listening to Courtney go off about positions and complained about Bella. It was the best time she'd ever spent with a vampire. All the while, she kept her head on Harry's shoulder, feeling very happy.

"Okay," Leah admitted, "so maybe this whole not hating her isn't so bad."

"So why is it that you don't hate the Cullens?" he asked her suddenly.

"What!?" her head snapped up off his shoulder. "Of course I do! They ruined everything!"

"Really?" Harry asked skeptically, letting go of her hand and walking a step away. "So what was it that they ruined exactly?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised.

Getting questioned on what the Cullens did to her brought up her old anger.

"I had a perfect life before they got there. I was happy and probably going to get married, and they not only broke all that when Sam imprinted, but then they made me phase having to see him think about _Emily_ all the time!" she ranted angrily, "it was _hell_."

She looked at Harry at the end of her rant. He looked... hurt. Very hurt. His face was pointed down and face was sad. Why would he be hurt by-

Oh.

_Oh._

_Shit._

Leah just made a choking noise at the back of her throat, feeling like she was about to cry. She hurt her imprint. No one else did. _She_ hurt Harry. How fucking inconsiderate could she be, talking about _Sam_, of all people, like that. Her life was a thousand – no, _infinite -_ times better now that he was in it. She would gladly go through all she went through to have Harry. She would happily go through all that much more, and she'd be thankful.

Harry was still just looking down sadly. _Fuck_. She felt like shit, like the worst piece of shit on the world.

She would beg, she would do anything he wanted. She wouldn't even make sex jokes about what she was willing to do, she didn't deserve to do that with him. She didn't deserve to even kiss his shoes and there she was, hurting him.

"I am so, _so _sorry, Harry," she whimpered. Her pride was all gone now, and she didn't care. If she didn't think it would make it worse, she would have gotten on her knees and cried on his legs right then, right in front of everyone.

He just nodded sadly.

"Harry, _please_ believe me. My life is a million times better, I don't really hate what happened to me. I am glad it happened now, since I have you," she rambled. "Really. I really am so fucking sorry. I really, _really_ didn't mean it. You're the greatest thing that ever happened to me," she kept talking really quickly, trying to say more in case any of it made him feel better. He kept looking down sadly. This must have really hurt him with this.

Why wouldn't it? She had just said that she blamed the Cullens for ever imprinting on him, and taking Sam away. Basically, she had just said that she'd rather have been with Sam than him.

She had really fucked this up.

"Harry. _Please_ believe me. I don't blame the Cullens, if anything I'm grateful to them because they brought you to me. I won't ever be mean to them again. I _owe_ them. You're-"

Whatever she was going to say was stopped when she noticed Harry's face, which he had pulled up.

He was smiling. He was smiling victoriously. That little _shit_. What a manipulative little _fucker._

"You heard it didn't you Courtney?" he gloated, like the little asshole that he is. "You heard she didn't blame the Cullens." He laughed loudly now, while the little whore giggled with him.

"You- you-" She sputtered. She couldn't even form a complete sentence in her head.

"You genius? You brilliant, _brilliant_ man?" He grinned even wider, looking for all the world as if he had just solved world hunger, his face was so smug. What a cheeky fucking imprint she had.

Leah finally restarted her thought process. "You manipulative little asshole! I really felt like shit there. I'm so hurt that you would be so inconsiderate with my feelings! You just used them so inconside-"

"Don't even try it," he cut her off, his grin becoming face spitting, "You can't use the same thing after I just did."

She cursed. She wished she could act as well as him. She looked at his face, which was still grinning smugly. God, it made her so angry. He pulled one over her so easily. And using her feelings like that to make her admit something she never would? That was fucked up.

It was so mean.

It was so inconsiderate.

It was so fucking_ hot_.

She jumped him, right in front of the vampire-whore and whoever else might be watching.

Harry caught her as she pressed her body against his, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, already grinding into him before he even fully caught her. He moaned into her mouth when she attacked him, fueling her passion even more. Her arms were around his neck, pulling his body against hers so that her chest rubbed against his, making her core tingle delightedly. She brought one hand down and pulled it up under his shirt to feel more skin-

"Wow. That is one of the sexiest things that I've _ever_ seen," the girl said, ruining the mood. Leah whined frustratedly and got off of Harry. "Don't stop! Seriously. I've never seen a more passionate couple, I almost started masturbating right here," Courtney licked her lips and ran her eyes over both Leah's and Harry's bodies.

Leah thought gawking at her was going to be the norm now. "Are you horny like all day?" Leah asked without thinking.

"Only around Harry." Okay, Leah definitely thought she wanted to be killed. Even if she knew where the girl was coming from. "Or so I thought. You turn me on just as much as he does, actually," she smacked her lips, staring at Leah's breasts. She didn't know whether to be flattered or creeped out.

"Don't know whether to be flattered or scared, right?" Harry asked her. She stared at him, wanting to kiss him again, this time for agreeing so much all the time. Especially on the more important things like this.

Courtney just shrugged. She didn't know either, apparently. Harry suddenly started laughing loudly. Leah looked at him puzzled.

He pointed toward Sam. Leah's eyes bugged out. He was _still_ yelling at Carlisle. "Still?" she asked incredulously.

"Apparently. Want to step in now?" Harry asked.

"We probably should. The leeches need help, it looks like."

"Hey now," Harry protested with a smile, "I know you like the Cullens now, you can't call them that anymore," Harry finished smugly.

"I hate the Cullens," Leah insisted.

"No, you don't," he said in a singsong voice. "Courtney, you heard her say that she was grateful to them right?" The whore, of course, immediately agreed. Well, Leah had a fool-proof argument.

"Nuh-uh." Yup. Leah thought it was _quite_ genius.

Harry laughed. "You can't just say no and that's it."

"If I deny it, it never happened," Leah stubbornly persisted.

He found that to be the funniest thing, apparently, laughing it up like a crazy person. He kissed her on the cheek after he stopped laughing. She smiled.

"Ooh. You guys are _so_ cute," Courtney cooed at them.

"We are not. I am completely badass, and a bitch, and just completely hard-ass, and _tough,_ and-"

"You're so beautiful when you're stubborn," Harry smoldered at her. Her chest filled with warmth at his praise. It was such a sudden thing too, that it caught her off guard and made her feel shy.

"Nuh-uh..." she said, and scuffed her shoe on the ground.

"Awwww!" she heard Courtney coo. She looked up and saw Harry smirk at her. That dickhead.

"I hate you," she declared and crossed her arms. That was twice he got her. Maybe she imprinted on someone too awesome for her. She should have lowered the bar a bit.

"Okay, enough using the imprint to make fun of Leah," he relented. She breathed a sigh of relief. "We have to get revenge on Edward and then stop that meeting."

He waved his wand and Leah could hear everything that was going on again. He must have put up silencing charms while she was paying too much attention to him. She really had to stop doing that.

"... there have to be rules with you vampires for you to know..." she heard Sam say. She immediately laughed loudly, bringing all attention to her.

She was spared having to explain how much Sam said rules by Harry. She didn't mind explaining, she just didn't want her little game in her mind to be ruined by Sam avoiding that word.

"So you didn't know anything about ancients being strong, right Carlisle?" Harry asked directly.

"No, I've never heard of that. I was under the impression that the older a vampire was, the weaker he was," he said, smiling gratefully at Harry. Probably for stopping Sam.

"Well, it looks like they do actually get stronger, the one that fought us today was stronger than even a newborn," Harry explained to him.

"Are you sure? I was turned by an ancient vampire, and he was extremely weak and thirsty. The Volturi as well... I always thought were very weak. They even have a layer of skin that looks as if it's petrified from not moving at all for so long-"

"Layer of skin?" Harry interrupted with raised eyebrows.

"Yes," Edward nodded curiously. "It looks... powdery almost. A layer of white on top of their skin that makes them look frail."

"Ah. I think I get it now," Harry scratched at his chin in thought. "That layer... that isn't petrification. That's magic buildup from it not being used. If they didn't move at all and kept feeding, their magic must have built up over the years, eventually saturating," Harry said contemplatively.

The Cullen's eyes all widened. "Aro has been sitting on his throne, feeding almost daily for over a millennium..." Carlisle breathed out.

"Oh. So we're properly fucked now, aren't we?" Leah asked sardonically. "Why didn't they just fight us back then, if they're so powerful?"

"Because of the other gifts that our friends had," Edward explained. "He saw through my mind how Bella's shield worked." He stopped to eye fuck his wife again. Leah really hoped she wasn't like that with Harry. "He saw how it acted like a two way mirror. He was careful to hide it from me, but I caught it as I was leaving," he said, pausing as if for suspense. "All Bella had to do was put a shield over Jane, Alec and Chelsea. They would've been rendered useless. With Zafrina and Benjamin as our weapons we could have blinded and burned them all without moving an inch," Edward said, shaking his head.

"Why the fuck didn't we then?" Leah screamed incredulously. They could have wiped them out before they left. What a fucking waste.

"We don't want to fight if it's unnecessary," Carlisle said firmly.

"Oh, just get the fuck off your high horse," Leah grumbled under her breath.

Harry looked like he was about to scold her, but he ended up snorting, which he tried to hide. Leah smiled victoriously. She knew she was awesome, it was about time her imprint saw it as well. Maybe she could get him to hate the Cullens as well? Probably not. She thought she could teach him to hate Bella at least, she was the easiest to hate.

"Well, we can't exactly ask your friends to stand here permanently while we fight off wave after wave that they send..." Harry mused out loud.

"You're correct, we already asked too much of them once," Carlisle agreed, sounding sad.

"I, as well, have already had my friends fight a war for me. I can't ask them for help either," Harry said with almost the same tone that Carlisle used. Leah was much more sympathetic to Harry's.

"So what do we do then. I'm not fighting people every other week. I'm already tired of fighting as it is," Rosalie complained, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Prissy bitch.

Leah snorted. "When have you fought a vampire? The last time was when Victoria came, and even then, Emmett did all the work for you."

"Maybe I should fight someone right now, you dirty little mutt. Come over here and I'll tear that manly hair of yours and shove it up your ass!" Rosalie screeched.

Apparently Harry had enough with her because he waved his wand at Rosalie. Nothing seemed to happen. Rosalie looked confused for a second and then asked Harry what he did. Silently. Because no sound was coming out of her mouth.

Leah laughed extremely hard. Oh, she loved him so much. Silencing the bitch, how much more amazing could he be? She went to tell him how much she loved him.

No sound came out of her mouth either.

What a dick.

With Rosalie, Sam and her all silenced, the meeting took about a tenth of the time that had already passed. She was very upset at being lumped in with Sam and Rosalie - and by her own imprint too.

She was so misunderstood.

"So, it looks like their magic builds up if they stay still too long and keep feeding. The vampire that changed you was probably extremely thirsty and had to move a lot to feed," Harry concluded.

"Yes. I can see why they would want to keep that information hidden. At least they aren't as bad as the Romanians. They fed as much as they could for more than a few millennium," Carlisle said.

"I remember how their eyes were almost clouded over with the white stuff, Aro had only about a third of what the Romanians had," Bella piped in.

Edward probably had to speak after his wife did. "If we ever have to fight the Volturi, they'd probably help."

Harry thought for a few seconds. If she wasn't so mad at him, she would have found it sexy how he was practically leading the meeting. He was the most knowledgeable there. Not only that, but he was the one to come up with the theories first, even though vampires were supposedly smarter. Her imprint was just too awesome. Oh, who was she kidding, stupid imprinting made her forgive him already. She would try to act mad anyways, just to save face.

"Well, the ancient _was_ stronger than a newborn, but not by an extreme amount. Leah was still able to swat him out of the air," he looked at her admiringly then. That's right, imprint, Leah thought. He _better_ suck up to her after he silenced her. "The real difference was his resistance to magic. He was practically immune."

"We can't share this information either," Harry said authoritatively. "If the Volturi find out that the more they feed the stronger they are, they'll feed almost hourly. They'll kill humans by the thousands," he said gravely. Leah couldn't even wrap her mind around that.

"Don't they already know?" Edward asked, "It's probably why most ancients stay still for so long," he mused.

"I think they have an _idea_," Harry said slowly, "They probably think that not moving at all, and making it build up, is making them stronger. They probably think they're building their strength up by not using it."

"Isn't that what we just found out?" Bell asked, looking confused.

"Well, it's the magic that builds up... not when they don't _move_ but when they don't _use it_..." he paused and scratched at his chin. Leah just kept listening raptly. "That means that they_ can _go and move as long as they don't use more than they consume..." he said, nodding his head as if finally putting all the puzzles together.

"So what would they do differently..." Emmett asked, then looked around, as if surprised that he said anything intelligent.

"If they found this out... they would probably go and feed as much as they could, that's how they would get strongest," Leah looked around, the only ones that seemed to get it where Carlisle and Edwards. But Edward probably only got it from Carlisle.

Leah got it, she thought smugly. Or she would... when she would ask Harry to explain it later.

Harry, apparently noticed this as well. "Think about it as an equation," he said, smiling a bit at something he was thinking about, probably at lecturing like Hermione. "You get so much energy from a human... for simplicity, let's say they have a gallon of blood," she saw Carlisle fidget and restrain himself from correcting him. "A gallon of blood has magic in it, let's just say a gallon worth of energy," he continued on, making Leah feel a little like he was dumbing shit down for them.

Harry took a deep breath and continued. "When you move and stuff, you use some of that energy. Actually... realistically, you use about maybe half of that gallon, in the whole hunt of a human, which might take a week." The vampires nodded, looking impressed at his calculation. She was torn between pride at her imprint and disgust at everyone talking about this so easily. "The Volturi are sitting in their throne all day, using _none_ of that energy they drank. So, they get stronger by a gallon every day," he said solemnly, then rushed out a small unimportant part. "Ignoring little details like not all of that is absorbed, and their powers taking more energy... details," he waved his hand around vaguely.

He continued. "So, if the Volturi can either waste half a gallon by hunting, or stay there and keep the whole gallon, they would keep the gallon," he said nodding. "However, if they could hunt three times a day... that's one and a half gallons they are keeping a day," he said making everyone's eyes go wide, finally getting it. He continued anyways. "The Volturi don't take a week to hunt, and they don't have to keep to their laws, hunting only a little. They could hunt ten times a day if they felt like it, and if it only takes that short for each one, then the magic wasted is extremely negligible. They could consume ten gallons of the blood's magic every day."

Everyone held in their breaths, knowing how true that was.

"So we never speak of this again?" Carlisle said solemnly.

"Agreed," almost everyone said simultaneously.

Jacob spoke up for the first time, from where he was sitting with Nessie, trying to keep her away from the grim conversation. "Whether we end up attacking them or not, or whatever we decide on doing, we need to come up with a better way of defending ourselves here," he said, standing up and walking over to them. "We can't be as vulnerable as we were today. Would you be willing to have one of yours accompany us on patrols?" he asked the Cullens.

That actually made a lot of sense to Leah. "Make it each couple will go with you," Edward said.

"Woo! I call Edward!" Seth immediately yelled. "And Bella," he added on as an obvious afterthought.

Leah put her palm on her face. Her brother might be gay.

She looked back at Harry and saw for the first time how tired he looked. He smiled at her and she jerked her head toward his house. "Come on," she directed, surprised that she had her voice back, "let's get you to bed." She smiled at him cornily. "I'll hold you all night."

Courtney showed up in front of them, then. She hugged Harry quickly, then dashed over to her and kissed her on the cheek, startling her. Her cheek burned from how icy the vampires lips felt, and not in a good way.

At least it wasn't as bad as she thought. If any other vampire had tried it, she would have already phased. Harry smiled at her sleepily, looking very happy that Leah didn't fight the girl. She guessed she could play nice for him.

She gave him a halfhearted glare and walked with him to his house, her arm around his waist to take some weight off, since he looked dead on his feet. All that magic he'd used must have taken a lot out of him.

He fell asleep before they made it to his house, where she laid down next to him, watching him contentedly.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The past few days had been annoying to Leah. She hadn't gotten much time alone with harry, and it was grating on her nerves. Her hormones had already been driving her crazy, and this sex drought wasn't helping her at all – even if they'd never had sex in the first place.

She and Harry had been hounded by just about everyone, making them do this and that, and never leaving them alone.

First there were the meetings. _Every day_, either the Cullens, or the wolves would call a meeting, usually to try and make an effort to coordinate. They almost always ended up badly. Ever since her pack had almost been decimated and then saved by she and Harry, the wolves were a lot more on edge around any vampires, and often required Harry to play mediator. Their relations had slowly gone back to what they were like before the confrontation with the Volturi.

If anyone asked her, she'd say it was Sam's fault. Her pack actually got along with them better than ever. Well, she and Jacob did, and as they were Alpha and Beta, they were the most important. Jacob got along with them because of Nessie, and Leah got along with them because of Harry's friendship with them.

And, she'd never admit it, but she was becoming somewhat of a friend to Courtney. As long as she didn't try and hit on Harry, Leah could almost forget that she was a leech for a few minutes a time. Especially when she gave Leah sex pointers!

Then there were their jobs, which both she and Harry had been neglecting as of late. She couldn't even remember the last time she went patroling, so she had to catch up, taking the other people's. Those weren't that bad, to tell the truth. Harry came with her half the time, so she wasn't bored, but she wasn't supposed to phase back to human, especially now, with how far her pack patrolled. They were in definite danger, and had to stay ready at all times.

Sometimes, she tried arguing with harry that he shouldn't come and patrol as well, but she had to concede that he was able to look out for himself. He won the argument when he said he would stop her from going if she did it to him.

When he couldn't go with her, he was usually at work. Working part-time wasn't exactly well received by his co-workers, he told her. Half the people complained, and half begged him to change his mind. So, in the end, he ended up working a lot more until they could manage it themselves. Apparently, while he was gone those two months, work just piled up and nothing got done. Now it was up to him to hold their hands while they peed.

It was an exaggeration, of course, but even the general idea of it was disturbing to her.

And lastly, there were the various people that bothered them just for fun. Either his friends, or her friends, or her family, or just random people who thought it was their business to talk to them.

The joys of being awesome.

Soon, though, she was going to tell them all to go to hell, and she was going to rape him. She wouldn't even be romantic about it, she would just knock him over the head and drag him to her cave – err, room.

At least they had more or less moved in together. She slept at his house every night, and he always treated her like she lived there as well. It was just too bad that they were always too tired to try and do anything.

She wasn't too tired to actually have sex, that was preposterous. It was the whole act that came before it, that she didn't have the energy for. While she would be more than happy to just climb on top of him after a long day and have a quickie, that wasn't what she had in mind for their first time. A good long evening of romance was ideal for their first time, but their days were just too busy for that.

And it was looking like that day wouldn't be any different, either.

They had yet _another_ meeting. This time, it was called by Harry himself, the first one that he had called. Naturally, Leah was excited. She vowed not to cause any of the normal disturbances she usually made. Even though those really weren't her fault.

Like, it wasn't _her_ fault that their conversation was so repetitive that she started snoring. It wasn't her fault that Sam was so stupid she had to punch him in the face. And it _definitely_ wasn't her fault that she ended up tearing the arm off the little psychic leech. The girl was feeling up Harry.

Her 'excuse' that she was just measuring him for a new wardrobe was complete and utter bullshit. The bitch was psychic, she should have _seen_ his measurements. The fact that she apparently couldn't see Harry because of their imprint wasn't her problem.

Just for Harry's sake, though, she would try to make sure that other people didn't fuck up as much this meeting, since it was his.

For some reason, he called every single wolf there, as well, insisting on it quite adamantly. He had a hard time convincing Sam that this was necessary, but somehow her imprint came through, so now every single supernatural being in forks was cramped inside Harry's house.

This upset Leah a bit, since it would smell like leeches for _weeks_ in there now.

She ignored the fact that he was supposed to be moving in a few days.

Funnily enough, he started out the meeting by giving out snacks. It shouldn't have been too surprising, her imprint was quite cunning, and he probably knew that he would be more likely to get his way if he fed the wolves first.

When everyone had shown up, Harry had brought out a folder, which made her curious, and then a giant box of chocolate frogs, which made her immediately forget about the folder. The frogs were something that he had talked to her about, but had never actually gave her any of. The only other magical candy she had tasted was when he had shared some of those every flavored beans, and it only happened once. She ended up vowing off any magical candy when she got a washer fluid flavored bean.

She had recognized it immediately because she had gotten some in her mouth once, when he was driving and she was following him as a wolf. He had purposely turned on the washer spray, hitting her in the face and mouth. The fact that she had to taste it again was like the universe just telling her that she was its bitch.

She wasn't going to eat any of the candy again, she had promised, but she couldn't help herself. They were _hopping_. It was like interactive candy, and it was really fun trying to catch them. She ended up eating almost two dozen of them. She especially like biting off body parts and seeing how much the frogs struggled and writhed in agony. She had cackled over seeing them trying to run away from her, using whatever limbs they had left to try and crawl.

She noticed that no one elses frogs did that. Her imprint spoiled her so much.

Her favorite part though, was the cards that came with them. One in particular. Most of them she didn't give a fuck about, but Jared did happen to get a Harry Potter card. They were all looking at the cards and laughing about some of the crazy things that were written on them when Jared said, "hey look, I got a Harry Potter card!"

Leah looked at him surprise and her eyes locked onto the card. She squealed and dove for it. Thankfully, it was about her imprint, else no one would have let her live it down.

After all the embarrassing things she'd done since Harry had gotten there, she'd expected everyone to make fun of her, but imprint related incidents were mostly excused. She had been scared her reputation was completely shattered now, but she had been pleasantly surprised that no one treated her differently... It was pretty awesome.

Smiling widely she read the card.

_HARRY POTTER_

_CURRENTLY HEAD AUROR_

_Most celebrated wizard in recent history. First and only person to ever survive the legendary killing curse as a baby, coining the name "The Boy Who Lived". Recently known for killing the Dark Lord Voldemort during the historic Battle of Hogwarts. Holds numerous notable achievements including discovering the fabled Chamber of Secret, killing a millennium old basilisk, and graduating as the youngest Auror in recorded history. Harry is an avid quidditch fan, being the youngest seeker to play for Hogwarts in almost two centuries._

Leah raised her eyebrows more and more as she read on - out loud, of course - to which Harry kept getting more and more red. He ended up taking the card away and scowling at her. She found it all extremely adorable. She wanted to tease him more, but was cooing too much to stop him from slinking away to the other end of the room in embarrassment.

Once she stopped laughing, she ended up day dreaming of cards of other imprints. They would be something like:

_SAM ULEY_

_Has spent the last decade searching for the fabled clitoris... has been unable to find it. He has the full backing of his pack in his quest, having brainstormed together many times. Enjoys rules and muffins-_

Okay, she might not be bitter, but she was still a bitch. She shrugged, not even feeling bad. She just picked up another chocolate frog and read Harry's card a few more times, thinking of how awesome her imprint was(and _her, too, _by association).

After a few minutes of some of the leeches watching them eat disgustedly(Rosalie) and some of them watching amusedly(the rest) they all got back on task. Seated in the table with everyone else, Harry looked around inquisitively, and then randomly asked Paul to hand Dr. Cullen the folder on the table. Paul shrugged and did it, even though it would have been faster for Carlisle to just grab it himself.

"Thank you," Carlisle smiled.

Paul smiled back, "no problem."

Leah looked at them curiously, then to Harry's oddly victorious smile. She looked back at Paul, who was frowning along the rest of the wolves. "Why was I just nice to a leech?" Paul asked to no one, looking suitably puzzled.

"I did that," Harry said, smiling widely. "I had a theory,-"

"Why do you and Carlisle always start out with 'I have a theory'," Quil interrupted, laughing. "It's sounds so... pretentious... or something." He frowned. "I can't think of the right word."

"Nerdy?" Harry asked helpfully.

"No..."

"Unnecessary?" Jacob asked, shrugging.

"Not really..."

"Redundant?" Edward sounded exasperated. That might have had a double meaning in it, Leah wasn't sure.

"Nah..." Quil shook his head.

"Gay?" Embry asked.

"Gay! That's it!" Quil cheered happily. "It sounds so gay," he finished, looking ridiculously satisfied.

"Really?" Leah made sure to look just as incredulous as she felt. "You couldn't think of the word _gay_?"

"Hey, it's not my fault," Quil whined, making hurt eyes at her. Which she knew were completely bullshit, "it was-"

"Do you want me to silence you guys?" Harry cut them off, holding his finger up. It was glowing slightly and had what looked like vapors swirling around it. Leah shut up and stared at it. She could only think one thing.

_Pretty._

Harry, like always, knew her attention span and her propensity to get side tracked so just rolled his eyes at her and kept going, getting rid of the pretty lights. "I _think_ that the reason that you guys hate each other is because of the smell," he apparently knew they would start saying that it's _not_ the only reason, there were many more, because he started talking louder. "It's not necessarily how bad it smells, but the magic you're smelling that tells you to attack them. Yours magics kind of... conflict. I think. It's similar to how pheromones act, but in an attack instead of shag way," he finished, a bit awkwardly.

They all thought that over a bit. Leah decided that there were probably plenty of other reasons to hate them, but Harry knew just what to say. "Think about it right now," he directed, a bit smugly. "You saw how Paul didn't even bother _glaring_ at Carlisle. That's because I magically cut off the smell that vampires make," he explained, looking very proud of himself.

"Huh, that's useful," Jacob allowed, smiling. "Can you, like, cut off their smells whenever they come over? I would like to not have to smell them when I visit Nessie or the other way." He looked to the side and stared at the Cullens as if just noticing they were there. "No offense," he added.

"I didn't even see you cast a spell," Leah looked at Harry inquisitively.

"You probably missed it," Jacob shrugged.

"Trust me." Seth snorted, "she wouldn't have missed it. She doesn't ever look away from him."

Leah reddened, even while Harry smiled at her affectionately. At least he didn't find it as pathetic as she did.

"It's practically worse than you, Sam," Embry nodded.

Harry spoke up again. "You _must_ get the attention spans from your dog forms." He quickly started talking again when they were all (Leah included) about to complained, "I didn't cast a spell, there was a potion in the chocolate refute to do that," he said hastily.

Sam stood up angrily, "you drugged us!?"

"Yeah," Harry was unrepentant. "I had to test my theory somehow."

"There should be rules about drugging people," Sam grumbled, the wind taken out of his sails. Leah snickered again.

"I did it for a reason," Harry continued, ignoring Sam, as was right. Although he did pause to give a quick smile at her snickers. "I want you guys to train against vampires, and this will make it safe for them so that you don't kill them," looking pointedly at the wolves, who looked vaguely guilty.

Eventually, Harry got them to agree that he did the right thing. He managed it through a cunning mixture of guilt trips, help from Leah who always immediately agreed, and a fair bit of blackmail. The last one was when they were still being difficult, Harry had sighed and said: "Just do it, or I'll tell Emily." That had shut most of them up. Sam had glowered jealously. Leah saw how much Emily liked Harry – not in a romantic way, or Leah would've slapped a bitch – and she absolutely _loved_ how jealous it made Sam.

So now they were all in his backyard, the vampires on one side, and all the wolves minus Leah on the other. All the wolves had left their clothes in the trees and phased so that they could fight. Edward was translating, but Harry sometimes used mind reading – legilimency, he called it – directly on Jacob, instead. Sam had growled at him when it'd been used on him.

Both Leah and Harry were in the middle, overseeing the events. Technically, Leah was supposed to be with the wolves, but she liked being in the middle, it made her feel more important. She pretended that her input was appreciated. Plus... Harry was there.

"First off-" Harry said, shouting a bit while looking between everyone, who was a few dozen yards away from each other.

"They can hear you, Harry," she interrupted him quickly.

He looked at her sheepishly. "Right," he said in a normal voice level. "I was told that you wolves spar regularly," he nodded approvingly. "I'd like to watch you guys first. To see where you're at."

The wolves shifted a little on their feet and seemed to be arguing. "They're trying to figure out who is going to fight," Edward said, suddenly right next to Leah. She glared at him as reflex, even if she didn't have the usual instinct driving her. It didn't make him any less annoying.

"Why don't you just pick for them, Harry," Leah suggested.

He nodded and put on a pensive face, probably trying to figure out who would be best. "You know much better than me Leah," he turned and looked at her, "both fighting and them personally, and you know more about this than me." His compliment brought a warm glow in Leah's heart. It would never get old when he complimented her. "Could you tell me a good example? Not too experienced or inexperienced."

She beamed at him. Not only was he complimenting her, but making her an important part of the process. Even in front of everyone they knew – at least in Forks.

Edward coughed. Leah would have retaliated is some kind of way, but she just realized that Harry had asked her for advice, and she was day dreaming away. Quickly, she put her mind to work.

Jacob and Sam were obviously out, Jared probably being right up with them, the three of them being too good. Paul would make a good example because he got angry and fell for a lot of tricks, but he was likely to get _too_ angry and ruin the exercise. All of the younger wolves were out. Quil and Embry were perfect, except for the fact that they were banned from sparring together in real practices, since they would always make a joke out of it. _She_ would have been perfect, but as a girl everyone always took losing to her too seriously.

Seth was around her level, so he was a good choice. He would have to fight either Embry or Quil. Leah chose Embry, Quil's size was a bit too much for Seth.

"I would go with Seth and Embry," she finally told Harry.

Before Harry even agreed, Seth ran out of their little huddle, hopping and jumping in excitement to the center of the field. Leah face palmed at her brother.

"Thanks Leah," Harry told her gratefully. She nodded back happily at his praise.

"It was good logic," Edward murmured beside her.

Leah peered at him oddly for a little while. "Harry," she called her imprint. He turned to her curiously. "I have the weirdest urge to say 'thanks' to Edward," she informed him, feeling detached, "it's from your potion right?"

He grinned at her. "Of course."

"Oh good," she sighed, relieved. "I'm still not saying it though," she quickly added on. "Just in case."

Harry just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the center of the field, where Seth and Embry were now facing each other.

"Start when you want."

Seth jumped immediately. Embry looked a little surprised, but countered perfectly at the last second, ducking to the left and getting flat on the ground. When Seth was at the apex of his jump, Embry darted forward and up, catching Seth in the jugular with his teeth and twisting, turning Seth's body mid air.

Embry landed on top of Seth, who had landed on his back. Her brother tried to give a fight, failing a bit, but the fight was already over. Embry just gave a tiny little warning shake, and Seth stayed still, since if he wanted to, Embry could just rip his throat out.

It was over in less than a second.

Embry got up and off Seth, who got back on his feet, looking a little embarrassed.

"Err, that was good," Leah heard Harry say, wincing. Leah winced with him.

"Seth!" Leah shouted at him. "Stop fucking around!" she turned back to Harry and pleaded with him, "let him try one more time, he was just too excited."

Harry just looked at her amusedly, motioning for her to go ahead and take over.

Giving Seth a look that said he can do better, she ordered them, "Go again."

This time, her brother thankfully didn't fuck around and jump like an over excited puppy. He stayed low to the ground just like Embry and they circled each other, looking for an opening.

When they finally moved, they didn't jump up in great big leaps, but they stayed low to the ground, their feet close enough that they could change directions mid stride. It was Seth who moved first, but Embry who was the first to attack. Seth placed one of his paws forward and took it back quickly, but it was enough for Embry to react. With two quick low strides, Embry lunged at Seth.

It was one of the first moves that Leah had taught him.

Seth waited until Embry had pushed off his last stride and jumped back with him, swiping his claws out and catching Embry in the face.

_First blood, Seth_, Leah cheered in her mind.

Her brother tried to capitalize and get an early win, probably to redeem himself, but Embry pushed off as he was falling, making Seth bite at empty air. After a quick roll, Embry came up and they faced off again.

Back and forth they lunged and bit, Dodged and swiped, not going for the kill yet. Seth looked like he would win when he was able to jump fully on top of Embry, but Embry pushed off his back legs, throwing her brother forward and landing him on his back. Seth had tried to bite Embry first, before he got flipped, but the skin on the back of their necks was too tough for that, and he only got some fur.

Embry found himself looking directly at a stunned Seth that was on his back and vulnerable. He quickly took advantage of it.

Leah had been rooting for her brother, and even jumped up and down a little when Seth had jumped on Embry's back, but had to groan when he was taken down. It was a shame.

Most everyone was watching quietly, except for Emmett, who was cheering loudly, not really rooting for either side. He looked like he just wanted to see some blood. Edward, always in her mind, snickered at the stupid pun there. What a faggot. Becoming a vampire must make people lose their senses of humor. Or maybe it was marrying Bella.

Yeah, that was probably it. Bella's special power was sucking the fun out of everything.

She noticed Edward rolling his eyes at her.

_You're only mad because that's the only thing she'll suck_, Leah thought as loudly as she could, grinning at his plight.

"Leah," the mind-rapist spoke up beside her, "the only person that thinks about sex more than you is Courtney," his face was incredulous. "Between you two, you think about it more than the rest of the wolves put together."

Leah couldn't help but be impressed by that. She'd been skeptical when Harry said that they'd be friends, but she could almost see it as a small possibility now. If she wasn't a vampire. Maybe.

It wasn't like she would let her touch Harry or anything, but she could maybe speak to him across a few yards, provided that she was on this potion again. Yeah, that could probably happen.

"I'm really tired of having to hear thoughts about Harry..." Edward murmured.

"Then get the fuck out of my head, _Leech_!" she whispered at him angrily.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Harry soft voice behind her calmed her down. She looked back at him, and was overjoyed that his eyes were narrowed, almost glaring at Edward for making her upset. "Leah?" he looked at her, his eyes noticeably softening.

Before she could assure him that everything was fine, Edward scoffed mockingly. "Leah was complaining about my reading her mind. She doesn't understand that it's not something I do on purpose, despite repetitive explanations."

"Bullshit, you can't help it, you smug bastard!" she immediately retorted, feeling childish.

Edward looked at Harry with an expression that said, 'see what I have to deal with?' That, or something like, 'I feel sorry for what you have to deal with, man.' Whatever it was, he could go to hell for all she cared.

Harry looked at her tentatively. "I read his mind, and from what I could see, he really can't help it..." he told her. Leah crossed her arms and pouted at him, feeling like she would now have to accept it since it came from her imprint.

"But he laughed at me..." she grumbled, needing to say _something_.

"I can't help what I found humorous," Edward rolled his eyes again. "It's an involuntary response." His face was smug, as if he had just proven her wrong.

Well, she wasn't giving up. That couldn't have been it... he had done _something _else, she just couldn't remember. Edward rolled his eyes at her again, probably thinking that she was being stupid, in his stupid smug mind that probably has nothing other than Bella, and them doing nothing but missionary positions -

"You rolled your eyes at me!" she cried out suddenly, figuring out what it was. That had been what had pissed her off the most. She turned to Harry. "He rolled his eyes at me!" she cried out, suddenly feeling like she was tattling on a classmate in kindergarten again.

Oh well, if it got him in trouble, it was worth it. Maybe Harry would send him to a corner? That'd be pretty awesome.

Harry bit his lip, obviously trying not to laugh at her. He turned to Edward, adopting a serious tone that was obviously smothering some giggles. "Is this true, Edward?"

Edward rolled his eyes again, although now it was probably at both of them. "See! He did it again!" she pointed out helpfully. "The evidence is right there!"

Harry finally laughed out loud, although not giving the mind-rapist any deserved detentions, and got closer to her. He grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers. She forgot about Edward. "As amusing as this is," he smiled at her, "we're here to train." She pouted. "I'll make it up to you later."

Her eyes widened and all sorts of naughty scenes popped up in her head. She heard Edward snort, but she didn't bother calling him out. It wasn't like he would actually have to go sit in the corner or anything, so it wasn't worth it.

Training went a lot more swiftly after that. Well, only for about half an hour. There was a pretty big problem in the middle, when they finally started having wolves spar the vampires.

There really shouldn't have been any problems, Harry had prepared for it well. The potion that he had created for them should have been enough for them to get along and be able to spar in a friendly way. Although she later learned it wasn't created, it was a standard one most people learned in his school, it just wasn't typically used for that purpose.

But... they had forgotten about Sam. _Of course_ he would do something stupid. There shouldn't have ever been any doubt that he would. In fact, the only thing surprising about the whole thing had been that they didn't see it coming. They should have. _She_ should have.

Anyways, it had started out well, jumping right back into the wolf spars right after Seth and Embry. The fights weren't as even, but it showed a lot different strategies, which was more productive than watching the more entertaining fights that lasted longer. First they had one of the young wolves fight Jacob, to show the disparity between their best and worst. Jacob had practically bitch slapped the poor little runt, and pinned him before the little wolf could even whine. It was painfully funny to watch.

Next they had Sam fight Paul. That was supposed to show the best strategist against the worst. Paul was the perfect choice to show the worst strategist, since he would always be all angry brute force. He immediately tried to attack at even the smallest opening. Sam was_ supposed_ to be the most experienced, being the oldest and therefore the wisest – which was unwise in her opinion. Both her and Jacob were much better. Still, Sam did alright, she guessed.

Then she fought Quil, showing the fastest against the slowest. Back before the little ones showed up, she was the smallest, but she could say that at least a couple were smaller than her now, especially with another girl there. Quil wasn't _the_ biggest, but he was up there. It made for an interesting match up. She would dart in and out of all of his attacks, all the meanwhile scoring little hits on him. After a few minutes she realized that he was healing too fast for her hits to accumulate even the smallest bit, so she would have to do something else.

So she went for his neck. They weren't supposed to do it quite as roughly as she did during spars, in the smallest case that they got carried away, but it was probably the only way for her to win. And win she did. She slipped under one of his swipes and lunged for his throat as quickly as she could. It probably hurt, hell it _sounded_ like it hurt, but she won, and that was all that mattered. She left Quil in the middle of the yard, bounding back to Harry, her tongue lolling out happily.

She was totally trying to show off to him.

At that time, Harry decided that they'd all gotten sufficient observations. "Alright, thanks guys..." he smiled at the wolves. "I think the Cullens know how to fight you a little better now." In retrospect, she'd admit that he could have probably worded that better.

Emmett, being the overgrown child that he was, whooped and immediately attacked Quil, who was still laying in the ground. He must have been holding that in the whole time the wolves were sparring.

After spending a years in Forks, they all knew about Emmett and what he was like. Every single one of the wolves saw what he was like every time they interacted, always watching him be cheerful. Every single one of them knew that Emmett wouldn't_ actually_ hurt any of them, especially when he was smiling like that. When he bounded over to Quil, he still looked cheerful, if a bit competitive, but nowhere was there any hints of a murderer. Even if it looked like Emmett was about to kill Quil, the wolves outnumbered the vampires at higher than two to one odds. It wasn't an attack. Everyone knew that.

Of course, that didn't stop Sam.

Being the retard he was, he thought that it was an attack – which Leah already established it wasn't – and ordered all wolves to retaliate. It wouldn't have been as bad if Sam had simply attacked, Emmett would have been fine, but _no_, he had to alpha-order his whole fucking pack to attack. Thank fuck for Jacob being quick.

When Sam ordered it, his whole pack descended on Emmett, fully intent on ripping him into pieces. Jacob, thinking quickly, threw himself next to Quil, ordering his friend to defend as well. They didn't last long under the onslaught, even with Emmett helping, but long enough for the rest of the Cullens to get their asses into gear and help out. It turned into an all out brawl after that.

At least no one was seriously harmed. The only ones that were hurt were the vampires, but not that much. Just a few scratches that healed almost instantly.

It would have been worse if the Cullens had actually tried to _fight_, instead of just defending. Rosalie was probably the only one that was really trying to hurt the wolves, but she was a prissy bitch, and didn't know how to fight, so she didn't do any damage. Leah couldn't figure out why they all acted so scared of her, she was a wuss. Leah would destroy her if they ever fought. It was too bad she was in Jacob's pack and was protecting her.

When Leah phased to help out, she caught the thoughts coming from Sam across Jacob's link. He was irrational, so there wasn't any chance of them talking some logic into Sam's head, not that they didn't try. Hell, even his own pack tried to talk him out of it, but he was in full attack mode already, and very few things other than killing the threat would snap him out of it.

Unfortunately, one of those few things happened.

Leah was still defending when she felt both Sam and Jared lunge at her at the same time. She was pretty much fucked, knowing she couldn't defeat either of them alone, let alone together, so she just curled up so that they would only take a chunk out of her back, but not kill her. They never got to touch her, having Harry jump in and protect her.

It was always nice when he protected her. It made her feel like a girl all over again, or at least a warm glow in her chest.

She grinned at him, or whatever the wolf equivalent was. He spent a lot of time with her so he recognized it for what it was, and sent her his own happy smile.

They should have paid more attention.

In his retarded, irrational rage, Sam tried to push Harry out of the way with a paw, but ended up catching him with a claw.

The tear of cloth and skin was easily heard from where she was, but the snap of a bone breaking seemed unnaturally loud. Harry ended up flying a good ten yards, to land in an unmoving heap.

Everyone froze.

Even the wolves who were under the alpha command stopped, snapped out of it by what happened. It was probably the fact that their alpha had just broken their most sacred rule that allowed them to ignore him.

But Leah barely noticed any of that, with her heart breaking into a thousand pieces. She could only stand there and stare at Harry's crumpled form. On some level, she must have known that he wasn't dead, because she hadn't gone crazy yet.

It didn't stop her from being terrified, though.

Carlisle was the first to react, running over to Harry. "He's fine, just knocked out, Leah," he soothed her. "His arm is the only broken bone we heard."

Relief hit her in almost painful waves, steadying her legs, which she just realized she had lost feeling of.

"_See, Leah, he's fine_," Jacob thought out to her

"_Yeah, but Sam won't be."_ Seth piped in.

Sam.

Now she remembered _why_ Harry was hurt.

He was so dead.

A low snarl built up in her chest. Not her usual bitchy snarl. This one was a constant, rumbling snarl that was brought from deep within her.

"_I'm going to _murder_ you_," she snarled at Sam, who somehow understood her. It was probably because she was Beta and might be able to make links like the Alpha.

She could feel his remorse, it was immense. It was almost as big as what he felt when he hurt Emily. Almost. Maybe if he had felt just as bad, she would have let it go.

Then again, maybe she would have still tried to kill him.

She launched herself at him, nothing on her mind except ripping his stupid fucking throat out and dangling it in front of his face. She would castrate him first though, swiping at his balls little by little, making sure that he felt every swipe, dragging it out as much as she could.

She would probably just kill him as quickly as she could though.

Sam was _very_ lucky for two things. One was that her pack stopped her from killing him – Sam's pack wasn't going to interfere, all of them renouncing their alpha when he attacked an imprint. And second, was the fact that Harry came back to consciousness.

"Ugh, what the bloody _shit_ was that?" she heard Harry's voice, redirecting her thoughts.

Giving Sam one last warning growl that promised pain later, she bounded back to Harry's side. He looked dizzy, which he probably was from getting knocked out. Stupid fucking Sam.

"Harry?" she whispered worriedly, after phasing back.

"Leah?" he answered, smiling a goofy smile.

"I'm here, babe."

"Did you just call me babe?" he chuckled crazily.

"Focus, Harry," she chided softly.

He laughed loudly. "Hey! That's my line!"

Leah couldn't help but smile. She didn't get to see a goofy Harry too often. Sure, he was silly a lot around her, but not this out of it.

If she hadn't been so worried about him, and angry at Sam, she would've thought it cutest thing she'd ever seen.

"Okay, Harry, let's go get that arm taken care of." She quieted him by stroking his hair, which he seemed to enjoy by his purrs.

"Yes, we should do that fast," Carlisle spoke up beside her, startling her. Vampires should fucking wear bells or something. "Before it swells too much." He reached toward Harry, which made Leah growl instinctively. She didn't like any vampires touching him. She could barely tolerate Courtney hugging him.

"I'll do it," Leah growled.

"Be reasonable, Leah," Carlisle had the audacity to chide her. "We can carry him without jostling him even a millimeter. As formidable as your race is, you can't boast the same. It'll be much safer for us to carry him."

Leah stared at him. It was all true, she knew. She was certainly strong, even as a human. Not as strong as the vampires, but definitely strong enough to carry anyone across miles, if necessary. However, from what Harry had told her, no other creature had the extreme control of a vampire. Still, there was a major point that overshadowed all that...

"I don't want you to touch him," she growled. It would've been much more intimidating if she didn't have Harry bouncing her left boob with his uninjured arm.

He seemed very amused.

"Leah?" Courtney's soft voice reached her. "Let me carry him, please. Run alongside me, he won't be more than a couple of feet away from you." Her voice was soothing and did the job, calming her down a little.

"Fine, fine." It rankled on her pride, agreeing with a vampire. At least it was for her imprint, giving her an excuse for ignoring her pride. That, and the fact that Courtney was a good friend of Harry's, giving some trust.

"Guys! I'm fine," Harry interrupted them. "Just let me take one of those potions there."

"Maybe you shouldn't..."

"Oh _Merlin_ you guys overreact," he stood up, swaying. He searched into one of his pockets, pulling out potion vial after potion vial. He set them all on the ground. "Alright. Hand me... that one." He pointed at an empty spot, away from all the potions.

Leah bit her lip worriedly, praying that she wouldn't pick up a poison. She picked up a blue one and a red one.

"Is it one of these?" she held both up to his face. She didn't know why she was going along with this.

His face lit up, snatching both of them from her hand. He took up a deep voice, and she started to get seriously worried for him. "Okay, okay. This is your last chance. You take the blue potion... and the story ends... or something. You take the red potion..."

Edward chuckled, cutting him off. "He's been getting into our movies, sorry about that." Leah wasn't sure how she felt about Edward talking about him like if he was a pet. He picked up the potions and pointed out that they were labeled, so they ended up giving him a general healing potions, a headache potion and a blood replenishing potion. Harry got better after that, even if he seemed a bit embarrassed.

It did free her to kick Sam's ass, or more like rip his throat out, but Harry stopped her. Sam was a lucky bastard.

"Are you sure I can't kill him?" she whined to Harry. "Just a little?"

He chuckled at her. "How do you kill someone just a little?"

"You know... just keep him right on the edge of death." She couldn't quite keep the growl out of her voice. It seemed to startle Harry a little. "Iwon't _actually_ kill him..." she grumbled.

"How about you just let him wallow in his self pity. If you attack him, it'll only let him feel better about it."

And just like that, she didn't want to kill Sam anymore. Well, she did, but she wanted him to suffer first.

Oh! Plus, If she killed him... how was she going to tell Emily on him? She grinned rather insanely. Her cousin would make him pay. Emily had tried to make him feel better about hurting _her_... but if he hurt _Harry_, she would kick his ass. Leah was sure about that. Fuck, Emily seemed to like Harry more than even Leah and Sam.

At least Sam had left. After looking like he wanted to beg for forgiveness - Leah had to be held back from attacking him again - he wisely(for once) decided to leave. Well, he was kind of forced to, since everyone screamed at him to. If he hadn't, she'd still be trying to attack him.

Somehow, Harry had convinced everyone to keep training, even after he was hurt. It made her feel better that she wasn't the only one that was so susceptible to his persuasion. Although she wouldn't be surprised if he had just used magic to make them all agree. She would have done it. A nice potion to make everyone more agreeable...

Or a little poison in Sam's drink...

It would be productive either way.

Regardless of what she wanted to do, which would be ignored anyways, they had a semi-successful training session. There was a lot of fumbling, and some were way too enthusiastic, but Sam was gone, so there weren't any big problems.

She honestly hadn't paid much attention, choosing to make sure that Harry was fine a few times. A minute.

Other than that, the closest thing to a problem was that Emmett and Seth wouldn't stop. Even after everything was over, and everyone wanted to go home, they were still going at it. Seth lost around three fourths of the time against Emmett, but he held his own.

It had taken Jasper to stop them. Harry didn't seem inclined to stop them, even though he probably could have with a wave of his hand. He seemed quite content to lean on Leah side and burrow into her side. They sat there and watched Seth and Emmett go at it again and again, like some fucked up gladiator show that was supernatural. With enemies who were too immature to realize they were enemies, so they were perfectly happy to wrestle all night.

Her theory of Seth being gay was gaining more and more evidence, what with him wanting to wrestle dudes all night.

Sparkly dudes.

Yeah, it couldn't get gayer than wrestling a beefy dude who sparkles and is always hard as stone.

"Hey, Harry," she nudged him.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think vampires can have sex while they're not erect? Since they're all hard as stone and stuff."

Harry opened his mouth, but he was interrupted. Courtney had run up to them.

Leah shouldn't have been surprised. It would be just like the girl to have a supernatural sex radar where she could sense when people were going to talk about sex.

"Hey guys! Whachu talking about?" She plopped less than a foot away from them, in between them.

"Sex, of course," Leah smiled back. Courtney would probably be the only vampire she would ever like.

Courtney's eyes lit up, looking for all the world as if it was Christmas morning.

"She was kidding," Harry interjected before she could get going. He gave Leah a look that said 'Don't encourage her.' "I was just talking about how I have to move now. I'm thinking about getting a house on the reservation, but I don't know if they'd be mad at me using magic to secure a place."

"Why would you need magic for that?" Leah asked curiously.

Harry cocked his head at her, looking at her like she was half retarded. Eh.

"I don't know if you noticed..." he said sarcastically, and Leah thought that _someone_ was getting a little too much attitude... "but I'm white. And British."

"Okay..." she drawled, pretending to understand. Harry rolled his eyes at her.

"You need proof that you're a Native American to be allowed land on the reservations."

"Well when you put it like _that_, it seems obvious..." Leah muttered.

"Either way, the wards just came down. Either all seven ward stones came down simultaneously, which is unlikely... or I don't have permission to place wards on the property anymore," he sighed.

Leah's eyes widened. "You're not sleeping here without the wards!" she immediately ordered him.

That's right, she ordered him. On most things, she would happily comply to any of his wishes, and the imprinting would make her enjoy doing things for him, even if he ordered her. Hell, she even looked forward in a weird way to when he would finally use that right. It was a weird thing loving someone so much that you'd rather they order you than fail to get something they want.

However, on his safety, she didn't give two shits about what he wanted. On that topic alone, she could order him and even use force if need be. She wouldn't even feel bad about it. His happiness was only important once his safety was assured.

Reality was a lot more forgiving, since being around him meant that he was safe. That was another reason why wolves tended to be around their imprints so much. 'Worried about their safety' was as much as an excuse as the reality.

The thing that people don't realize about them is just how much worry goes through their mind on a daily basis. Every little thing that happens around their imprint, they worry about the things that could happen. It's especially true at the beginning, when the imprint is fresh and the wolf isn't accustomed to being able to think about other things. After a while, they're able to juggle more things, and sometimes even ignore the imprinting, but that takes times.

Or stubbornness.

Leah, as always, was an exception to these things. At least this one was only a small exception. Plus, she wasn't the only female werewolf anymore! That was pretty cool. She'd have to talk to the girl soon, she was supposed to do that a while ago...

Although she slightly resented it at the same time. It used to make her unique. Badass. At least she was still the only female that imprinted.

It would be nice to see how different the other girl's imprinting would be though. Most of the other wolves were almost a slave to their imprints, while Leah had a lot more freedom. She didn't know why, exactly.

She had a few theories, like the fact that she'd been against imprinting for a long time before she'd actually done it. That might have taken some of the absolute power an imprinting has. Maybe it was the fact that Harry was a wizard and could protect himself, so she didn't feel the need to protect him all the time. Maybe it was that he was a male, and as a female, she didn't have the same kind of instincts as the other wolves.

Or maybe she was just really stubborn.

That was her theory. She definitely _felt_ the imprinting; in fact, hers was by far the most intense, regularly distracting her by the sheer amount of feeling it brought. But she was too stubborn to let it dictate how she acted too much. Sure, she still enjoyed doing things for him and all that like other wolves, but none of them would act out as much as she did. Leah regularly went against what Harry said he wanted.

True, mostly it was because she thought she knew what he wanted better, so it was always for him... but it was still better than the other wolves. Paul would never tell Rachel to stop watching those soap operas that made her slightly crazy, even though he wanted her to. Quil would never deny Claire candy, even though it was horrible for her, especially at her age. Sam would never tell Emily not to have so many muffins, even though she was going to get fat soon.

Leah regularly went against what Harry wanted. Mostly it was about teasing him even though he asked her to stop... but she knew he liked it. Sure, it made him uncomfortable sometimes, especially when he wore jeans, but she knew he'd feel better when he got laid. It would be good for him.

Then again, maybe she was just horny.

Like a beacon, Courtney's eyes pierced into hers, making her lean back from the intensity of the stare. That girl _had_ to have a sex radar or something, it was like she _knew_ what Leah was thinking about.

As Leah thought about something other than sex, Courtney backed off. It might have been her imagination anyways. Suddenly Courtney's smile brightened even more than usual. "You can stay with us, Harry!" she squealed, hugging Harry.

Although the hug definitely lasted more than a half second.

It was definitely more than two seconds now. She cleared her throat.

"Okay! Get the fuck off him!" Leah burst out, unable to keep it bottled up. Her hand were twitching, wanting to kill the whore again.

"Sorry," Courtney put her hands up in surrender.

"That sounds nice," Harry smiled at the whore, ignoring the whole byplay.

_Wait a minute_... His first sleep over was _not_ going to be with anyone else. That was bullshit.

"You're not sleeping there!" she ordered again. An overly slutty vampire girl counted as being concerned for his safety. It did. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, calling her out on her bullshit. "A house full of vampires, Harry, must I say more?"

"Hmm," he pretended to think. She knew better to think that he'd make this easy for her. He was _plotting_, not thinking. Plotting against her. "I would be safe..." She scoffed. "If I had someone there to protect me," he grinned.

"No offense, but Courtney couldn't hold off a bunch of vampires, she doesn't..." she trailed off at his mischievous grin. If it wasn't Courtney protecting her... "Oh no. No, no, _no._ I am _not_ sleeping in a house full of vampires!" she shuddered.

"Okay," he shrugged. He turned toward the re-dubbed whore. "Hey Courtney..." he winked at her, not even trying to hide it from Leah. Smug little bastard. "I'm kind of afraid of vampires..." he pretended to cower in fear, completely ignoring the fact that Courtney was a vampire herself. If he was going to blackmail her, he could at least get the details right. "And I don't want to sleep alone in your house, do you think you can lay with me while I sleep?"

...Bastard.

"Yes!"

"Foul!"

Leah glared at both of them, trying to decide on which one to yell at first. Territoriality won out.

"Don't you dare lay with him in a bed alone. Ever," she pointed a finger at Courtney.

She turned to Harry. "That was blackmail," she accused.

He shrugged unrepentantly. "So we're agreed!" he smiled happily. "Leah's sleeping over too. I need to go inside and pack up all our stuff." That little word made her mostly forgive him already. 'our'. She didn't really care about most of his things, or at least didn't feel any attachment to them. They were just his things. It was him saying that he considered them hers as well that touched her, especially when none of the things were ever hers to begin with.

She melted a little.

"I'll make sure that the rest of the Cullens don't mind you staying over." Courtney turned to Leah with a wicked smile, "I'll make sure to ask Rosalie and Alice to have a girl's night and not invite Bella."

Leah had to laugh at that. Maybe the girl wasn't such a whore after all.

* * *

The packing of the house hadn't taken more than an hour. Harry had used a nifty little spell called 'Pack'. It had been the first English word that she'd heard used in a spell. Harry didn't use incantations too often, usually only when she asked for it, but she'd seen a lot of spells from his friends. They were all in Latin or Greek or something.

That had led to an impromptu lesson on incantations, which took the rest of the hour. There were a lot of things that went over her head. Especially when he talked about spell creation. She couldn't quite grasp the concept of the creator choosing the language. He tried explaining it to her, but then he said that it could be translated, but had to be recreated, and then finished with some of it being just a theory... he completely lost her.

He was an excellent teacher for sure, but she could tell that he hadn't fully researched that part well. His explanations were filled with a lot of 'I think's and 'I'm pretty sure's. The rest of it, the actual application, was taught much better, and she remembered all of it. He explained how the incantation wasn't absolutely necessary, but facilitated easier casting of the spells.

Harry explained that casting without the incantation took a certain level of skill and power. _Pack_ wasn't a spell he used very often, so he wasn't very skilled in it, therefore didn't bother trying it silently. He could have, she was sure, it was just a lot of effort for a spell that he would never have to silently cast.

She listened raptly at his teachings about how to get to the point of casting silently. According to him, there were a few things that affected the ability. Power levels were an important part. The more powerful a person is, the more power they have to throw at the spell and force it to work. She thought about that for a while, how if she had it right, a very strong person could potentially cast any spell by throwing enough magic at it until it worked, while weaker people had to cast it perfectly. It seemed unfair, in a way.

The next thing he explained was how familiar with the spell a person was, and how that affected casting. If Harry were to cast a spell five thousand times, he could probably have started to cast it silently after a while without even noticing he was doing it. In other words, the more familiar, the easier it was.

Then there were the more intricate details that she couldn't fully understand, but what she could, she found fascinating. How well the person knew the theory of the spell, how well the magic matches up to the wand's strengths, the leaning of a person's magic. She couldn't fully grasp most of those, but she got the gist of them.

She was enthralled when he told her about how familiar someone could become with their favorite spells. He told her about how after using the disarming charm so much, he could cast it silently, without a wand, by instinct, not even having to think about it. The spell could be out of his hand before he had even fully willed it to happen.

He explained his five favorite spells to her, the ones that he can do without thinking. They were the summoning charm, banishing charm, shield charm, disarming jinx and the Reductor curse. It showed of his utilitarian personality.

The first four seemed pretty typical, or useful. Move stuff around, protect and attack. The last one seemed unlike him, since she thought of him as a pacifist, until he explained it to her.

"It's what I break out during the _real_ fights," he grinned at her. "Not against vampires, it's useless against them, but against people with soft bodies, it's devastating. It's one of the only things that will hurt people even when you miss. You blast the shelf next to them? The shrapnel will hit them an incapacitate them for you. Probably multiple people."

It was grisly, but she couldn't fault the logic. She asked him what happened if he _didn't _miss.

"If I power it enough, the body parts will incapacitate other people as well."

Gross.

He talked a little about his friends, and _their_ favorite spells, the ones that they could do without thinking. Hermione's two spells were the bluebells charm and the drying charm. One to give light when she read, and the other to dry the ink after she wrote. Leah was starting to really love that little nerd. She reminded Leah of Emily a lot.

Ron, on the other hand, was a little pervert. His best spell – not willingly shared, Harry only knew by observing – was the scourgify spell. The cleaning spell. The first thing that came to her mind, and she was sure she was right, was that he used it after masturbating. The worst part was that Harry and Hermione were not aware of this. They genuinely thought that he used it that much to clean up after himself when he ate.

Naive little things, they were.

She definitely treasured these conversations, though. Nothing was more precious to her than what he chose to share with her, so she was happy to listen for the rest of their time.

"Well, you're welcome," Leah said loftily, smoothing her clothes as she got up.

She had sat on the couch and done nothing.

Harry rolled his eyes at her and shrank all of the boxes around them, setting them all on the table. It made her smile. Miniature things still tickled her so.

"Would you mind keeping these at your house?" he asked her hopefully, as if she'd ever say no.

"Of course not," she admonished, with a stern face. She wanted to get him out of stupid habits like those. He should never ask her, he should order. As in, 'Hand me that,' or 'take those clothes off,' or 'ride me now.' She wouldn't mind taking those orders. Not at all.

She looked around, feeling nostalgic at the thought of never seeing the house again. It had been a place where Leah grew emotionally. Because of this place, she now had a boyfriend, she was no longer a bitter harpy, and she'd learned a lot of things about magic. She'd miss it.

Especially the couch, which she saw they weren't taking with them. They had spent a lot of time on that couch. Not recently, because it had been pretty hectic lately... but before, when their friendship was still growing.

She looked back on the times with mixed feelings. Learning more and more about him had been amazing – and if she was honest, she was nowhere close to done learning – but it was all marred with that uncertainty about his girlfriend.

So maybe she had overreacted, she could see that now. After all, no imprint has ever been denied. But she was entitled to that. She was sure every other wolf had freaked out when their imprint was taken.

Oh well. It was over and done with. The girlfriend had only come once, even if she did have to listen to Harry do... _that_ between the whore's legs.

..._Although_, at least she knew that he was willing to do that. That certainly put her in a better mood – and what was _with _her, she was never _this_ horny. Ever since their kiss, it was like her body had gone on a hormone overdrive. It was becoming ridiculous.

She'd long become used to thinking about nothing but him, but it used to be in a much more sweet and caring way. She used to want nothing more than to hear him talk, appreciating anything he said.

Now she wanted him to shut the fuck up and put his mouth to a better use.

She would have to think on it, she decided. When he wasn't near, at least. For now, she would have to try and concentrate on something else.

"What're you thinking about?" Harry asked softly beside her, both of them entwining hands by instinct.

"Just going to miss this couch, I guess," she shrugged, moving her hand over the armrest. "We spent a lot of time on it."

"We can take it with us?" he offered.

"Nah," she waved a hand, put off by the idea. Moving it would destroy the magic anyways. Figuratively. It was a normal couch.

"Well," Harry pretended to think, while he stroked his chin, which made Leah notice for the first time how he never had facial hair, not even a shadow. Must be magic. "We should at least say goodbye to it properly, don't you think?" he turned to her with raised eyebrows.

She matched it, not knowing what the hell he was going on about. "Huh?" she asked intelligibly.

Then the most wonderful thing in the world happened.

Harry flashed her a quick mischievous grin, and then threw her on the couch, hard enough to where it would hurt normal people. She was just surprised that he'd managed to catch her off guard like that, he'd moved awfully fast. Then it got even better. He landed on top of her, meeting her mouth with his.

Unlike most women, Leah had the ability to go from normal to ready on a hair trigger. It was a skill she was sometimes proud of, and one she attributed entirely to her imprint. It was just as much a curse as a boon, since she could sometimes get incredibly horny near people with supernatural noses, just by thinking of Harry.

What that amounted to was that when Harry pressed his whole body on her, and kissed her like that, it took her no time to get on his level – and much higher.

She kissed him back hungrily, sticking her tongue almost obscenely far down his throat. Their bodies writhed together in a delicious way that made her want to skip all foreplay.

Her mouth tried to travel down to his neck and lower, but he kept bringing her face back up by her chin. She was already too far gone to take it slow, but he kept insisting on it. The last time she tried it, he even took his mouth off her and murmured, "patience."

It was annoyingly hot.

Leah debated flipping them over so that she could be on top and able to set the pace. Or at least be able to push him a little bit more.

His hand tentatively moved down to her neck, once she gave up trying to move anymore, but still moving much too slowly for how needy she was feeling.

What he seemed to be doing, was giving her only a little by little, and only when she gave up control. Imprint or not, that wasn't going to fly. She wanted more, and she wanted it now.

She stuck out a hand and gripped the couch, bending the leg on the same side, getting ready to twist them around so that she'd land on top of him. He must have caught on to her plan, because he gripped the couch with his other hand, foiling her plan. Now the only way that she'd end up on top of him was if she turned them down on the floor, because that hand wasn't going to let her twist like she wanted to. It might even end up breaking his arm anyways.

It would probably be a mood killer if she broke his arm, so she refrained.

However, there had to be _some_ way to win there... even if his kisses were making it very hard to plan her usual evil, kinky plots. It wasespecially – delightfully – hard to think at all when she could feel his erection pressing against her thigh.

That thing had to way too much power over her. She hadn't even seen it yet, but she knew it would be perfect. Not only by the amount of times that he had tried to unsuccessfully hide all of the erections, giving her a very good idea of its size, but because of the imprint. She would love it no matter what.

Plus, he had magic, which he had already shown he could use to make it bigger. That little show he did of making his finger bigger had given her wet dreams for days.

She'd never ask him to use that though(the magic). Well, she'd never bring it up. Ifhe asked, then maybe she would agree to maybe try it and see if maybe making it bigger was better – she'd have to see it first, of course – but even then, she'd make sure to seem very happy with it already. She could imagine just how much it would hurt his feelings if she asked something like that.

However, this all made her very aware of just how much she day dreamed about Harry's dick. It wasn't supposed to be like that. The male penis was supposed to be a handle by which women controlled men. Right now it was the opposite, she was practically putting it up on a pedestal and praying to it.

She'd never admit it, but she had a dream about just that, hence the analogy. It turned her on more than it should have.

The point was, that she had it backwards, and she shouldn't let him have even _more _power over her than he already had.

So she did something about it.

She pulled away from his kiss a little, pushing his face away, and Harry automatically put his hand back on her face, probably to pull her back if she decided to drift again. Good thing she wasn't going to do that. She just held his face with one hand and looked into his eyes mischievously, already looking forward to the results of her plan. His eyes were cloudy, but cleared up when she waited, and then turned inquisitive.

Leah smirked at him briefly, and then with an innocent expression on her face, she moved her leg in and out, stroking him with her thigh. He immediately closed his eyes in pleasure.

Victory.

She smirked and started sucking on his neck, getting a moan from him that seemed to go straight from her ears to between her thighs, because she could feel them getting wet. Her shorts had a wet spot on them already. She should probably start wearing underwear again.

Somehow, he had enough fight in him to stop her, or at least not let her continue further, because he suddenly grabbed her leg to stop it from moving, doing the same to her face by pushing it back up to his mouth.

Now she became genuinely frustrated with him. She had reluctantly conceded that if he stopped her from going farther, then he could make her wait for it. Like when he wouldn't let her get to his neck, that was fine. She hadn't gotten there yet.

But he couldn't just make her stop doing something she'd already earned! That was cheating!

Fine, then, she would cheat too then.

Glowering at him for good measure, she pulled back. Watching him grin smugly was the last straw. In her usual impulsiveness, and with a casualness that belied how much she'd been looking forward to this, she plunged her hand into his pants, making sure to go beneath the underwear as well. Before he had even blinked, she had a firm hold of his dick.

Harry's eyes immediately closed and his mouth opened in a surprised gasp. He completely let go of her, almost becoming limp underneath him. She smirked, knowing she won.

Knowing she'd completely won, she let herself forget about their little competition and concentrated on the most important body part she'd ever held in her hand. She was pleasantly surprised at the size, and briefly wondered if the size was real, or if he had used magic to make it bigger.

The next few moments were spent trying to memorize every detail she could, on feel alone. Harry seemed unable to do much else than moan.

"So warm..." she heard him mumble.

She'd never thought about that. From what she'd heard, the warmth of being inside a girl is one of the best feelings of having sex. What just entered her mind was how much warmer she was than every other girl, and just how that must feel to Harry.

She couldn't wait. Even if her temperature meant he wouldn't last at all.

Staring at his face, she saw that his face was scrunched, like he was holding something in. Or trying really hard not to finish. She must have underestimated just what a warm one oh eight felt like wrapped around sensitive flesh.

Always one to try to make him feel good, she helped him along. She took a firm grip, making him bite his lip, and she started stroking. She was very thankful that Harry was stronger than even a normal wizard, because it was hard to stroke him like she was while underneath such constrictive clothing. She had to get a really firm grip – not that he seemed to mind. The button of his jeans tore off, but she kept going.

He moaned loudly and seemed to win the fight against his natural response – which she most definitelydid _not_ approve of, she wanted to make him feel good – and he started kissing her again.

At least he didn't try that going slow bullshit again. His hands gripping her ass and pulling her instead of trying to restrain her.

Suddenly, there was a tapping sound coming from the window.

"Ignore it," Leah mumbled into his neck, where she'd been sucking.

"Mhm," he hummed in agreement against her collarbone. She concentrated on how good his hands felt kneading her butt cheeks, and how hot he felt in her hand – and wasn't _that_ surprising, that it'd still feel warm to her.

The tapping got louder.

Before she could get mad, she felt one of his hand come off her ass, with a growl coming from him, and then heard the window opening. The sound of rustling wings came closer, and then promptly disappeared all together.

Silencing charm. Most useful imprint ever.

She got back to work, putting her hand farther down, going for the head. Her arm was still at an awkward angle, almost in between them, so she shifted a little and straddled his leg. When she felt the friction hit her, she immediately she wondered why she had not done this before, and started grinding on his thigh.

Since she could reach lower now, she started stroking the full length, making him falter again. Impressively, he seemed to become even more defiant. He reached both hands between them, and ripped her shirt down the middle, doing the same to her bra while she was gaping at him.

Still frozen, she didn't stop him when both of his hands went to her breasts, shuddering when his hands grazed her nipples. A loud moan came out of her mouth at the feeling.

In a frenzy now, she ground and stroked faster and faster, feeling herself come to a peak. By the urgency of his hands, he was as well.

And then someone knocked on the door.

She stopped, and turned to look at it in disbelief. There was no way that was happening. She turned back to Harry, whose eyes were comically wide with surprise. He stared back, clearly not knowing what to do either, but still breathing hard, just like she was. She briefly considered continuing - they could probably finish before the next knock.

They knocked again.

Leah narrowed her eyes at the door. The whole thing seemed like one of those movies, the romantic comedies, where the people get interrupted by their friends in the middle of sex, and then they come out all embarrassed, and the friends make good natured fun of them. Everyone then has a jolly good time afterward, talking about it all, finding the whole thing just _hilarious._

Except that shit wasn't funny at all.

Leah was fucking pissed.

She let loose an angry growl, letting go of Harry – his disappointed groan almost melted her, but not quite – she got off of him and stomped her way to the door, fully intent on killing the inconsiderate prick that was on the other side. Whoever it was just made her almost as angry as she had been with Sam earlier. They would pay.

When she reached the door, she pulled on the handle, her anger making her movements choppy. The handle broke off.

"_Mother_ fucker!" she cursed.

She heard Harry moving around behind her, but she was too angry to look back. Her hand shot out, fingers splayed like a claw, digging into the wood and making her own handle. With her angry strength, she tore the door clean off its hinges and threw it off to the side, looking to see who it was that bothered her.

Just before she did though, she heard Harry make a squeaking noise and felt him grab on to her boobs for some reason. It felt amazing on her nipples, but she was too angry to cave in. She would have to kill whoever it was without breaking Harry's boob contact, that's all.

She looked up and saw Emily, Rachel, and Kim – who was holding Claire in her arms. They all looked at her wide eyed, whether fear or surprise, she didn't know. Having a lot more experience with her rage, Emily was the first to recognize how close to dying she was; she backed up.

"There better be someone dying," was all Leah said.

She refused to be embarrassed, or even explain. It was obvious what she was doing – and more important, what they_ interrupted._ She didn't stop glaring at them, Emily in particular. "First your _stupid fucking wolf_ almost kills Harry... now you-"

"_Leah!"_ Kim interrupted. The only reason that she didn't keep yelling, which she wanted to do, her anger always made her even more single minded than usual, was because it was _Kim_. Kim who never spoke loudly, who never interrupted anyone. Leah turned to her, expecting a good reason for ruining her tirade, and saw that she was pointing her head significantly at little Claire.

Kim had been holding her up with one arm, the other covering the little girl's ear. Her other ear was being pressed against her shoulder.

Ah. Language around kids and all that shit. She'd gotten tired of hearing that by the time she was twelve.

"Whatever," she mumbled, turning back to Emily and Rachel. "So? What do you have to say for yourselves?" She tapped her foot and crossed her arms to show her displeasure, but it was a little awkward with Harry still covering her boobs.

Instead of the fear that they _should_ have felt, Rachel looked _mad. _At_ her_. As if _Leah_ had gone and cock-blocked them – or whatever they called the female equivalent. "He took your shirt off _first_? I'm so disappointed in you, Leah," Rachel tutted at her. Leah sputtered in surprise.

That was not the groveling she'd been expecting.

"Haven't I taught you _anything_?" Rachel asked in a surprisingly successful attempt at a guilt trip face. If Leah hadn't been so angry, it might have worked.

"No!" she shouted, startling everyone. Even Harry, making his arms twitch, which did wonderful things to her breasts. She damned those stupidly pleasurable hands for making the anger bleed away. "You didn't teach me _shit_, Rachel."

"Leah!" Kim admonished her again with a glare, her eyes widening dramatically at the toddler she was holding. "And put a top on!"

Leah ignored it. "Go. Away." The words barely came out through her clenched teeth.

The three women looked at each other in trepidation. For a sweet moment, Leah thought they were going to give up and leave, but _no._ They stayed. Emily seemed to gather herself up and then, with visible effort, kept eye contact with her. "Sorry... but it's important."

"What is it?" She would give them a chance, seeming as it was important and everything. Maybe, just maybe, they had a good enough reason. Like an apocalypse, or something of that nature. Nothing less would do.

"Um..." Emily looked around, eyes landing on the ripped shirt that was on the floor. "We're... going shopping! That's right. Shopping!" Her face tried to smile, but it was slightly weary. It was beyond obviously fake.

"We're going shopping!" Rachel repeated excitedly, getting nods from Emily and Kim, all of it telling Leah that they had just thought up the excuse. Except little Claire; she just seemed bored.

"Why in the world would you think I'd go _shopping_," Leah made a face, her mouth feeling dirty just from saying the word. "It's so boring, and _gay_."

"What?" Emily looked confused for a second, then her expression cleared up. "Oh! No, we're taking Harry. Not you, Leah."

"Me?" Leah heard Harry ask from her side. For once though, she wasn't paying much attention to him. She just stared at Emily with her mouth open.

She couldn't understand why they would ask Harry to go and not her. That hurt. Especially since they were _her _friends first! She wasn't jealous exactly - she was still happy for Harry - just upset about herself. It would have been nice to at least be _asked_ to go with them. She wanted to be invited, that's all. Plus, she was a girl, too, unlike Harry, so it made more sense for them to invite her instead of Harry. It was just really unfair, that was all, but she was definitely not jealous.

In short, she was jealous.

"Why wouldn't you ask _me_?!"

Emily looked at her with an unimpressed face. "You _just_ whined to us that you didn't want to go."

"Well, I do _now_," she mumbled.

"Sorry, Leah," Rachel giggled. "Imprints only today."

Leah looked at them with an open mouth. Were they _really_ interrupting their sexy time and then taking _her_ boyfriend away? For _shopping_? She voiced the question, and they all nodded at her, acting all serious. She tried putting up a fight, but she could already tell that Emily wasn't taking no, dead set on interrupting them for some reason. It was all extremely annoying.

"Plus, Sam wants to see you," Emily told her, and before she could tell Emily where Sam could put his big head(in a big hairy diarrhea-ridden-ass), Emily cut her off. "He wants to apologize. Let him," she glared at Leah again, and somehow made her agree. The whole situation was completely unfair.

Emily didn't let her finish with Harry either, and _that_ was the most annoying part.

"We're giving you ten minutes to get ready, and then we're leaving," Leah's face perked up for a second. "Okay, _five._" Leah glared._ "A_nd then we're leaving. Harry, be ready," Emily ordered, and then asked Harry to fix the door.

Leah sighed and put her forehead on the door, right after it flew in place, and felt her body finally start to calm down after everything that had happened. She was definitely upset about not getting to finish anything, but at least appreciated the imprints making Harry feel welcome. It _was_ awfully nice of them to make him feel like part of their family; the Quileutes did not mingle with white people too much. She wanted Harry to get along with her tribe, just as she wanted to get along with his friends.

At least that's what she tried to focus on.

After all, focusing on Harry was the easiest thing for her. Focusing on anything _but_ Harry's hands – which were still on her boobs – was difficult, no need trying to make it harder with something completely uninteresting.

And she _did_ really appreciate the girls doing this for him. So much that she'd let them live after interrupting them. She should probably go and make Harry get ready or something.

That made her realize that he hadn't really spoken much at all in a while, ever since she had opened the door. He wasn't usually _that_ quiet, although he was quieter than most – one of the many things she loved about him. She went to turn back to him, but his arms enclosed her more tighter in response.

Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, she found herself roughly pressed against the newly fixed door, her face rattling a little. If she had been a normal human, it would've probably knocked her out.

She might have thought about at least pretending to be pissed... if it wasn't so fucking hot. Not only was he pressed along her whole back, but she could feel a distinctly hard thing trying to wedge itself between her ass cheeks, and doing a wonderful job at it.

She ground back into it, getting a groan from him. It would have been a perfect time for her to say something really sexy to turn him on even more, or even something witty to push him. However, her brain was way too muddled from the abrupt assault. "You've been quiet," was all she could gasp out.

He growled lightly again. "Do you know how _hard_," he ground into her pointedly, "it is to concentrate when I'm holding _these_?" he bounced her breasts, making them jiggle. She ground back as much as she could while holding back a moan, then whimpers when he started pinching her nipples.

As hard as it was, as much as she would have rather done _anything_ else in the world, she tried to stop him. "Emily's going to come back in soon," she sighed sadly.

His sigh was even sadder than hers, something that made her feel even lighter than she already was. He finally let go of her boobs, and walked away a step, letting her come off the door – not that she couldn't have pushed him off if she had wanted to.

A few seconds later, which Leah had taken to try and calm down, she went to turn and face him again, but he stopped her again. Quickly, his arm shot out and grabbed her by the stomach. He pulled her back once again, making her once again feel his raging erection, much to her delight. She hoped it happened a lot from now on.

What happened next, Leah definitely couldn't have prepared for. With this single thing, she very nearly had an orgasm. In a quick move, Harry stuck his hand in her shorts, and a long finger covered the whole length of her opening, all the way from her her clit to the start of her ass.

She froze, the sudden pleasure attacking her senses. Then he pulled his hand out again, the finger dragging against her, momentarily slipping inside her. The whole length of the finger dragged against her clit on the way. It overloaded her brain, making her hump the air even when his hand was out.

This time it took her almost a whole minute to open her eyes again, which was spent alternatively trying to calm down, and cursing Harry for stopping. When she did open her eyes, she turned her body and saw Harry looking at his finger with an unusual amount of concentration.

Looking at it, she saw what was so special. It was glistening in the light, absolutely _covered_ in her fluids. She flushed, amazed about just how _much _of it was still on there. Especially when he had barely gone inside her. She was a little embarrassed.

Until he stuck it in his mouth.

She gasped, looking at him with wide eyes. It was the hottest thing she'd even seen. The sheer bliss on his face was breath taking. All she could do was watch him and try not to jump him. Eventually he opened his eyes and grinned at her, "that's delicious."

Someone knocked from the other side of the door again, breaking their heated gaze. "You've only got one more minute!" Emily's voice sounded out.

Leah was going to kill her. Slowly and painfully.

Sighing, she put on her ripped shirt, holding it closed with her hand. She hadn't ripped any clothes in weeks, ever since Harry gave her the amazing anklet. Well, technically _she_ didn't rip it, he did. So it was all good. Harry ended up fixing it for her with a wave of his hand before opening the door anyways.

As they were leaving, she caught the sight of his face. He looked just as sad as she was to be apart.

"Wait," Leah stopped them. "How come Nessie isn't with you, if it's an imprint day?" She raised an eyebrow, suddenly thinking that they might have been lying. It was a last desperate bid.

At least until Emily sighed all sadly, making her unwillingly lose her suspicious attitude. "All three of our wolves," she pointed to herself, Rachel and Kim, "won't let us be around her. We've never met her, actually." She seemed quite sad about it.

With that sad note, they left, marking their departure with the same feeling that Leah had.

Sad.

Sad and horny.

She might as well go and take it out on Sam. He did almost kill Harry, she should _at least_ get to break a few of his bones.

* * *

Even after the door close, and he couldn't see her anymore, Harry could _swear_ he could still see Leah's disappointed face.

Her beautiful, disappointed face. With her short hair all disheveled, making her even sexier. For a moment, he felt angry at the Native American girls who took him away from his girlfriend, but he liked Emily too much for him to stay angry. She'd always been very pleasant and good natured. It was hard to stay angry at her.

That and he didn't know the other girls very well. He'd seen Jacob's sister, Rachel, a few times, but never really spoke to her. Oh, and he heard Leah complain about her sometimes, but she would only say very vague things, which made him think they were things that included him.

He coughed in discomfort at the awkwardness. Emily pointed to the minivan that they drove in response. It was a smaller looking one, but even a car would have done fine for them. None of them were particularly large. They trooped in silently, Emily driving and Rachel in the front. The other two girls somehow maneuvered him so that he was in the middle of the first bench seat, even though there was a whole empty row behind them. The maneuvering was especially impressive since Kim was carrying the little girl.

It very much felt like he was surrounded, and like they were going in for the kill. Even the little girl next to him, who's name he still didn't know. The other girl, on his left, he was pretty sure her name was Kim.

Rachel twisted her head in between the front seats so she could talk to them, ignoring Emily, who was telling her to buckle up. "So, I don't know if you've met at the bonfire already, but on your left, that's Kim." He shook her hand and nodded at her. She seemed just as quiet as him. "And on your right, that's little Claire."

He put out his hand again, but the little girl ignored it, choosing to scream indignantly instead. "I'm not _little_!"

"How old are you?" Harry asked the little girl, who looked at him angrily, as if he should have known already.

"Four!" She held up three fingers. Harry nodded with a strained smile.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Leah showed up at Sam's house, expecting one hell of an apology. Something along the lines of:

"Leah, I'm so sorry that my brain is only a third the size of yours, and only a sixth the size of Harry's. If I could help it, I would, but I'm _way_ too dumb to be able to help it. I would kill myself if it wasn't for Emily. As a compromise, I'll do anything you want. Always. I kneel before you, awaiting any punishment you choose."

That _might_ make her forgive him. After a while. And a few ass kickings.

She knocked, flexing her hands to ready them for some punching. Just in case.

The door opened and Sam came out, looking suitably remorseful. It was enough to make her unclench her hands, even if there wasn't any kneeling and awaiting punishment.

He led her to the table silently and made her a plate of Emily's food. Buttering her up before opening his big mouth. Smart. She suspected that Emily had a lot to do with this, he wasn't smart enough to figure that out by himself.

They ate in silence, licking the plates when they were done. They used to be in the same pack, it made them a little more comfortable around each other than they should be.

"I'm sorry," Sam started out, breaking the silence.

Leah sighed, not really knowing what to say either. The anger was mostly gone now that she had time to cool off. She didn't so much want to kill him anymore, she just wanted him away from Harry forever now.

"I'm not... comfortable with you being about Harry anymore," she informed him, not pulling any punches.

She didn't feel bad when he winced and put his head in his hands. "I won't hurt him ever again, I _promise_," he implored her, looking every bit a desperate man.

It made her feel a little weird, but she couldn't tell exactly why.

"What?" she said, the weird feeling making her defensive. "You know you would feel the same way. In fact, you'd probably be a lot more pissy about the whole thing than me."

He rolled his eyes in the same exasperated way he used to do a long time ago, when she would constantly piss him off. It didn't give her the same feeling of satisfaction as it used to. "I think avoiding me forever is completely unnecessary."

"I don't care," she shrugged. "It's how I feel. I don't feel like he's safe around you, and you know that's the most important thing to us. Our imprint's safety."

Sam looked pained. The insinuation that she thought him a threat was probably hurtful, but he deserved it. "Leah..." his face scrunched up, like he was fighting not to cry. Over-dramatic. "You really think I would hurt him?" His voice wavered. "You think I would hurt _you_ like that?"

The strange feeling came back, making her fidget. It wasn't a good feeling.

"Wouldn't you?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It was an _accident_, Leah." He pounded a fist on the table, a loud crack coming from it. Leah wasn't impressed by his little tantrum. "We were fighting and he got in front of me! I was just trying to get around him, I didn't want to hurt him."

"Oh, bull. Shit. They all felt how angry you were at Harry when you did that. It was _not_ an accident. Maybe a mistake, but you knew what you were doing." The whole time she ranted, she'd been making wild gestures with her hands, pointing fingers in his face. Her anger had come back; not as potent, but it was still there.

"You'd be angry if he tried to stop you from defending your pack as well!" he pointed angrily.

"Nobody was in danger, you just fucking flew off the top for no reason!"

She wanted nothing more than to wrap her fingers around his stupid neck and strangle him, but it was too bad he was stronger. He was so frustrating.

"I can't take any chances," he set his face in that stupid face that he thought was commanding. It made him look retarded.

She wasn't backing down. He did it for a reason, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

"I want _Quil_!" Claire whined loudly at Harry. He looked around, looking for help. He'd take just about anyone right then, even a saleslady.

He was being abused. It wasn't an exaggeration, he was literally being abused. When the little girl found out that he could do magic, she had immediately latched onto him and demanded magic tricks. He wasn't sure that he shouldn't spend a few seconds hexing Rachel for letting that slip.

If the D.M.L.E. ever found out just how much he fucked up with the Statue of Secrecy, he'd be sent to Azkaban for life. The whole town practically knew that he was a wizard.

At least he comforted himself with the knowledge that if they investigated the town, with the shape-shifters there, the Statue of Secrecy would be the last thing to worry about. The ministry would probably do all kinds of evil to get the powers of the shape-shifters... which wasn't really really comforting at all, if he thought about it.

Still, he might even take _that_ over babysitting this little girl. It had been cute for about three seconds in the car when she had done silly little things, like a typical toddler.

Then he found out just what a little brat she was. _Merlin_, having a wolf protector that young was _not _a good idea. It became exceedingly obvious that she was spoiled beyond anything healthy. Malfoy's childhood would probably seem like a right down sob story next to hers.

No matter what, if she didn't get what she wanted, she would start yelling for Quil. Evidently, Quil would give her candy whenever she wanted, let her play with anything she wanted, and let her stay up as long as she wanted. She was going to have _serious_ issues when she got older.

Then again, Quil would probably just cater to everything she wanted.

He had spent a few minutes talking to Emily about it, and trying to come up with way to fix it. They were even conspiring to have Jacob and Sam give Alpha commands to be more responsible. They would need both to do it, so that Quil couldn't just switch packs and keep doing the same thing. They would really have to rally together, even getting their wolves to help out.

Rachel wasn't really into it; she seemed quite content with letting Paul spoil her, and seemed quite happy to keep it that way. They would have rallied against her as well, but she was a grown woman, so they left her alone. Besides, she was only ridiculous _sometimes_, not how Claire was becoming.

It also made Harry wonder at the system that they had going over there, in their reservation. The fact that Claire's parents let this go on showed a lot about their town. He had noticed it quickly, and saw that it was one of the pitfalls that the Magical World had.

That all consuming trust in their leaders.

Muggles very rarely acted like that. Harry _had_ heard of Hitler, of course he had, but that was an exception in the muggle world, not the rule. Most muggles were very wary of their representatives. They were routinely inspected, all their actions were regularly called into questioning... it was just very different. If the muggles had heard of an official skipping protocol, they wouldn't go 'oh, it's Dumbledore, he must know what he'd going.' No, they'd automatically try to fix it.

It was understandable, though. Both the magical community and the reservation were small, and that brought its own problems. The muggle world was very standardized, having billions of people go through the same thing, so the problems were well known by most people, and they all knew what to do about it without having to run to their leaders. Or stick their heads in the sand.

The magical world was different, and so was their reservation, it seemed. In both places, when there was a problem, they would go to their most trusted and vaunted figure. Dumbledore in the magical world(now _himself_) and the elders in the reservation. Both of those communities took their word as law, something that was _very_ stupid, in Harry's opinion.

Just looking at Claire, he could see how they were wrong. From what he heard, Claire's parents were very concerned at first about a teenage boy wanting to spend all day with their toddler daughter, and rightly so. Then the elders had stepped in and had a talk with the parents and a day later the parents gave Quil full power of the child to do what he wanted. It wasn't just irresponsible, it was _insane_. And the worst part was that everyone acted like it was fine.

Harry just couldn't understand how it had passed all of them that Quil was still a teenager himself. As parents, it was their responsibility to protect their child, even from well meaning but misguided people. Not taking candy from strange senile old men came to mind.

Not even Emily had figured it out until she'd seen the effects with her own eyes.

And that was when Harry had known he'd probably fall in love with Leah, when she had done the opposite. It was one of those eye openers, what she had done, and something that he hadn't seen in any of the people he knew. Something that just fell in tune with him so perfectly that he couldn't help but do a mental double take.

She had insulted her reservation's elders.

It was a small thing, but it showed him _so much_.

Everyone he talked to from her little town, all of the wolves especially, they had all worshiped the elders. Everyone said the same thing: they were so wise, they knew all our legends, they probably knew something they didn't... it was Dumbledore all over again. People treated their words as gospel.

Which was all the more amazing when Leah treated them with skepticism.

And it hadn't been a personal thing, either, she had fully acknowledged their knowledge, and praised the decisions they had made correctly. But she had disparaged how people thought of them, and _showed_ that when she told him to bring Malfoy to the bonfire and that everyone else could suck it. To Harry, it was beautiful.

It showed that she thought for herself, and that she had a healthy amount of disrespect for rules – probably a minimum requirement to be his soul-mate.

Which was why he was going to go to Leah when he got home and ask her for help in dealing with this annoying little girl that was now pulling at his shirt demanding ice cream.

"No," he repeated for the thousand time. She started crying loudly again, pulling even more attention on to him. His eye twitched.

"Please, Claire," he tried reason again. "There really isn't much I can do, I'm not supposed to leave from this spot," he pointed to their general area, which was by the changing rooms.

_That_ had been a pleasant surprise. Well, the extremely long amounts of time that he had to wait wasn't, but watching three pretty girls show outfits wasn't that bad. Even if they didn't do any lingerie shows, it was still something. Although, to his eternal shame, he kept thinking about Leah more than the pretty girls wearing short skirts in front of him. He was so whipped.

"Pick me up!" Claire screamed, ignoring everything he had just said. With an exasperated sigh, he obliged, holding her up how Emily had taught him, with his arm underneath her, to support her.

Now that she was close to him, he could see the evil smirk that looked diabolical on that tiny face. It was unnatural. "Get me ice cream, or I'll scream more," she whispered with the evil smile still on her face.

Harry gawked at her. She couldn't be more than five – he had forgotten what she said already – and she was already blackmailing. They had a lot of work to do to fix her.

He narrowed his eyes at her. He wasn't taking shit from a snot-nosed little git trying to order him around. There had been enough of that when he had gone to school himself from his cousin.

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked her with his own evil smile, feeling extremely petty for baiting a toddler.

"Yeah!" she shouted, frowning at him and probably wondering why she wasn't getting her way.

"Okay," he mocked, poking her on the nose. He had used it as a discrete way to cast a spell on her.

Claire looked at him angrily, clearly upset at the way he dismissed her so easily. She opened her mouth, her chest visibly expanding as she sucked in all the air she could...

And then nothing.

Sure, her face had gone all scrunched, and her mouth had opened widely as she worked her lungs to scream as loudly as she could, but no sound came out. Harry had silenced her, and he was proud of it.

The girl looked around in confusion when no sound came out, and then locked eyes with Harry, silently asking him what had happened. She looked rattled, something that any muggle would be when they had suddenly lost their voice. She looked on the verge of tears.

Harry smirked at her.

The little girl went ballistic, trying to hit Harry, and crying even harder. Harry laughed, pettily enjoying his revenge. Leah was rubbing off on him, and not in a good way. He would show it to her in a pensieve later. She'd find it absolutely hilarious.

After a while of the trantrum he felt a little guilty, so he hugged her some while she cried it out. The guilt went out the window when she tried to bite him. After that, he set her on her own chair and let her cry as much as she wanted to.

* * *

"You did it on purpose!"

"It was an accident!" Sam screamed back at her.

That had been going on for a while. Their accusations were changing very, very little.

Most people would call Leah stupid for continuing this, or they might even commiserate with Sam for having to deal with it, but she was smart. Much smarter than Sam.

And definitely smarter than the kind of people who sit around and talk about her and Sam_. Still_. And there _were_ those people, people who were way too bored in the little reservation. There wasn't much to do there, and scandals were spoken about for ages. That fact made it even harder on Leah when Sam broke up with her, having the whole town instantly know about it, and not give up on it for years.

In any other town, they would have forgotten about her in a couple of days. In a city, nobody would even have cared. She dreamed of those types of places for a long time.

Now though, she could definitely see the appeal of her little town. First, she wanted _everyone _to know about Harry. Secondly, the amount of gossip the women there did could definitely provide _hours_ of amusement.

Now that she wasn't a bitter harpy, she could finally laugh at their scandalized faces. If she didn't feel like wearing a bra, she didn't feel like wearing a bra. They didn't have to keep staring at her nipples like that, even if they did stick out obscenely. It wasn't like she did it on purpose just to see their scandalized faces, or the way that they tried to push the closest men away, or the way that their hands fidgeted, as if they wanted to cover her up. She didn't refuse to wear a bra to laugh at them.

She only walked around them to piss them off, she'd already been bra-less before that.

Still, the town _was_ kind of stupid, so they definitely wouldn't have caught on to what she was doing. Accuse a man enough, and they'll eventually crack and do what you want. It was a genetic flaw, there was nothing they could do about it. They _were_ the weaker sex, after all. Except for Harry, of course.

Maybe she should accuse Harry of not wanting to have sex with her. He might break.

At least Sam was stupid enough for this to work.

"You wanted to hurt him!"

"I would never-"

"You hate him." She hadn't shouted, and that was what probably made him stop yelling.

"I don't _hate_ him..." he said awkwardly.

"You _do_," she nodded emphatically. "You always look at him with mistrust, like he was about to steal Emily from you or – Is that it?" she blinked. Emily _did_ like Harry a lot, maybe a little more than normal. If Emily wasn't such a loyal little thing, she'd probably be attracted to Harry. It was actually completely understandable for Sam to hate him for that. "You're _jealous_ of him!" she declared triumphantly.

"I am _not_ jealous of him!" he roared, getting way too mad, way too quickly. He pretty much proved her right.

She crossed her arms and smirked at him, knowing she won. "You're jealous. That's hilarious. You know he's not going to steal Emily..." She shook her head, wondering how retarded he was to think that. "Really, you're being retarded. Emily's completely loyal, and so is Harry. They're both the _least_ likely people to ever do that." She laughed a little, thinking about them cheating like that. It was too ridiculous to take seriously. "They _would_ make a cute couple though, I have to admit. They're all quiet and stuff, they have a lot in common," she kept talking, enjoying how angry Sam's face was getting, "and did you _see_ how well they get along? Fuck, he even healed her face! If we weren't in the picture, she would have definitely at least sucked him off for that..." She tried her best not to laugh, but the whole thing was extremely hilarious. Pissing Sam off was just the icing on the cake.

He finally broke, yelling off his frustration.

"I'm not jealous because of Emily, I'm jealous because of _you_!"

* * *

It was a weird sight that the other girls saw when they came out of the dressing room. Claire was sitting sullenly in a chair, snot and tears all over her face, and Harry smiling cheerfully.

He had to talk fast to get out of that one in one piece.

But a lot of good came out of it. They'd(Emily) had been impressed by how much better behaved Claire was after some efficient discipline, and they'd cut the clothes shopping short. Win-win.

So it was a very Happy Harry that made his way to the food court with the other imprints. Then Emily suggested that they drop off Claire at a little day care for an hour while they ate. Plus, she had been completely asleep, and wouldn't wake up when Emily tried. The girls chalked it up to her running out of energy by crying so much.

Harry chalked it up to the stunning spell he hit her with when no one was looking. He didn't say it out loud, of course, just nodding along with whatever they were saying.

Then they actually got to the food places, and Harry decided to get the healthier choice with Emily, while the other two went to get some more fatty foods. He didn't actually care about the health, it was just still awkward to be around the other two alone.

"So, you think Sam and Leah are killing each other yet?" he asked her with a fond smile.

Emily chuckled. "I'm sure Leah got a few hits in, but Sam knows how to hold his temper too well." The pride in her voice was obvious.

Harry was quite proud himself. He was very proud that he managed to hold in a snort. He did raise an eyebrow at her, though, wondering if she really forgot about earlier that day already, when Sam almost killed him in a hissy fit. Maybe she hadn't heard about it yet?

She saw his expression and had the decency to look sheepish. Ok, so she did. He remembered that he had mentioned him apologizing, anyways. "Yeah, besides that. But that was a special case."

"How in the world was that a special case," he asked her incredulously. "The only thing that stood out was how he still hates me. And I still don't know why."

"Fine," Emily sagged and started talking. "He hates you because of Leah..."

* * *

Sam was breathing hard when he finished his little confession, all of his muscles bulging out from how tense he looked.

Leah only blinked dumbly. _"What_?" she asked, her brain frozen.

Sam grabbed at his hair in frustration all of the sudden. "You were in my head for a long time, Leah. You know what I meant."

Leah just kept staring at him dumbly again. He couldn't mean what she thought... that would be extremely stupid. His next words proved that he _was_, in fact, that stupid.

"You know how much I love you."

She remembered being in his head. He used to think about how much he still loved Leah... every once in a while. On average, he slept eight hours a day, so he had sixteen hours awake. Fifteen of those were spent thinking about Emily, fifty five minutes were spent thinking about food, his pack, or where to take his dumps. The remaining five, he would think about her.

And most of that was just feeling guilty. Every once in a while, he would think about how he still loved her, and how he couldn't help it that he thought about Emily all day, and how if things were different, he would have never left Leah.

It had never failed to piss her off.

But it was different now. She didn't care about it any more. It didn't make her feel indignant when he felt sorry for her because it didn't happen anymore. It didn't make her angry that he would toy with her affections like that, she didn't have any affections for him anymore. It didn't make her angry that it would give her hope, even if she knew that it was completely impossible for him to leave Emily. She didn't want him anymore.

So why in the world would he bring this up.

Leah stared at him some more.

"What?" she repeated, not having come up with anything better.

Sam looked at her again, showing frustration. "I _am _happy for you. I _am_. But it doesn't change the fact that I still wish things were different sometimes."

She chuckled nervously. "I always though you were just making it all up to make me feel better."

"Of course not!" he said indignantly. "That'd be... awful."

She didn't want to say that it was one of the reasons she hated him so much. Besides, it wouldn't change anything. It was just _one_ of the many reasons.

"So... what do you expect from me?" she asked him, still wondering why the hell he brought this up. "You know I'm not like... doing anything with you, right?"

Sam shook his head sadly. "I know. Our imprinting won't let us."

"Well, I wouldn't anyways," she shrugged.

He looked at her in surprise, looking very hurt. She didn't care. "If we weren't imprinted... you wouldn't..." he trailed off. She didn't answer. "Don't you feel the same about me?" he asked weakly.

"No." she responded honestly. "Not at all." She chuckled at the thought, which turned into small laughter. The fact that it would probably make Sam feel worse only made it funnier.

They sat there like that for a few moments, Sam looking sad, her smiling in amusement. She'd share this with Harry later. He'd probably find it just as hilarious as she did. They'd laugh at Sam together and make love and it would be amazing.

Or maybe... maybe he'd be jealous! _Ooh_, she thought in delight. She'd find it extremely hot to see him jealous, wanting to fight for her, wanting to show his superiority against other males. Then he'd take her hard and fast, to show everyone that she was his. She sighed dreamily in her seat.

"Did you stop liking me before the imprinting, or did the imprint erase everything..." Sam asked her, bringing her out of her daydream. Leah looked at him, he was fiddling with his hands nervously.

"I don't know," she furrowed her eyebrows in thought. She had tried to get over him every single day after they broke up, even the day of her imprinting. She'd tell herself how idiotic Sam was, and made book length lists of reasons for why Sam was undesirable, and why she shouldn't love him anymore. It worked _logically_, but she still loved him.

If she didn't, she wouldn't have found it so painful whenever she'd see Emily in his mind, or hear about their wedding, or just thought about him. She still had the attachment there. However, that was all that was left at that point. Just an old attachment, not any reasons. If she had reasons for why she'd love him again, they might have survived the imprinting, but baseless attachments are the one thing that imprinting gets rid of. Only real affections are able to be reforged after the imprint.

So she didn't really know if it was truly love she had for him before that point, or if she was just unable to let go because of the pain. It wasn't just-

_Why was she even thinking about this?_

She turned back to Sam to tell him to fuck off, that he could shove his affections up his ass, but he looked _really_ sad. He looked like his heart was broken.

She snickered.

Emily would take care of him anyways, he was being over-dramatic. But thinking of Emily did make Leah want to not be an _extreme _bitch, because she did genuinely like her cousin.

She sighed, steeling herself to get through the conversation already. "I guess the imprinting was just the little push I needed. I was already trying to get rid of you before that."

He looked just a tiny bit relieved, but still pretty crestfallen. She really didn't know what he wanted there.

"So, if you hadn't imprinted -"

She found out she didn't care either.

"Dude," she interrupted, her limit for emotions long passed. "You're such an emotional little _bitch_. _Fuck_, man, get the fuck over it." She stood up to leave, but pointed a finger at him again. "I'll let this go just once because Harry would be mad if I killed you. Don't touch him again."

They stared at each other, she pissed, he still sad.

"Got it?" she growled.

"Yes," he finally answered, his face back to a stony mask. At least he wasn't being all whiny.

She nodded and left the house.

But not without breaking their lamp with a quick: "fuck you!" She needed to unwind, that was stressful.

* * *

Half of the waiting line later, Harry's mind was reeling. Sam was still in love with his girlfriend.

And he left them alone right now.

Okay, he wasn't really worried about that, Leah wouldn't cheat on him. But it was still pretty disconcerting to him, to know that.

"How can you stand it?" Harry asked her, curious and apprehensive.

"He can't help it," Emily shrugged. "They were in love before he imprinted on me, and that doesn't just go away. But he also can't be with her, the imprint won't let him. Even if I wanted him to go and be with someone else, the imprinting wouldn't let him enjoy it or anything." She took a deep breath and let it out. It looked like she was collecting her thoughts. "No matter what, that's not going to change, so why punish us both for that?"

Harry smiled and nodded, a little impressed that she could move on despite all of that. It spoke of a powerful will to not let it bother her. Inside, though, he had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.

It just didn't make sense to him, the imprinting was supposed to cut away all ties, that's what Leah said. That nothing would survive that first imprinting, and only important ones would reform themselves quickly, so how could Sam love her again so quickly. He shouldn't have been able to reform that relationship, since it was the worst thing for him.

There were a few possibilities. The most likely one was that Sam was an idiot, and let it reform itself, even though he wasn't going to end up with Leah. It might have been because he was confused, or because he tried to fight it because he felt like he should, or he could have even been too scared of Leah to break it off immediately. He didn't know what happened. The other more darker reason, was that Sam did it on purpose, using Leah. If that was true, he'd kill Sam with his bare hands.

Then there was the other possibility. The one that he didn't want to believe. He assumed that all ties were cut away, because that's what Leah told him. She could have been lying... no. She wouldn't. He wouldn't even entertain that thought anymore.

But still... "You don't think..." Harry trailed off, fidgeting and feeling foolish but not being able to stop himself from asking. "You don't think that Leah is still in love with Sam, do you?"

Emily hesitated when she answered, and that was enough to drive him crazy. "No, I don't think so." She didn't sound too sure of herself, though. "At least, not anymore. Maybe in the beginning, but she's clearly over it."

He nodded, his doubts not assuaged at all.

"Just look at how she reacted when she imprinted," Emily reasoned, and he was happy to let her reassure him. "When Sam imprinted, he was mad that he had to leave Leah. When Leah imprinted, she'd been the happiest I've ever seen her. Including when she was dating Sam." She nudged his shoulder, "so don't worry."

"Okay," he smiled, feeling better. He guessed it didn't matter anyway, it wasn't like he would leave her because of it anyways. She couldn't help her feelings.

Either way, he let it go out of his mind, since it wasn't a threat to him. Sam could pine over Leah all he wanted, but Leah loved _him_, and he trusted her. It felt good to think that.

Now they were all sitting down in a pretty deserted area of tables, and they were joking around, talking loudly, when Emily got all of their attention.

"Okay," Emily looked at him pointedly, her voice taking a serious quality. "We _did_ have an important reason for interrupting you earlier."

"Oh." He blinked. "I thought you just wanted Leah to talk to Sam."

"No, we actually meant to talk to you before you have sex," Kim spoke up, automatically making him pay more attention. He had barely heard her voice all day. "There are a few... preparations that you have to do," she colored a little.

Harry looked at them in amusement. "Oh?"

"Yes," Rachel nodded emphatically. "There are a few dangers when you have sex with them. You have to be prepared, else they can hurt you."

"Like what?" he asked, worrying about what could stop him. He _really_ wanted to have sex with Leah.

"Um," Rachel hummed. "Like how strong they are. Whenever Paul is about to finish, we have to make sure he doesn't try and hug me. He's bruised a few ribs before," she winced.

"I'm a little stronger than muggles like you guys," he teased. "Leah _has_ hugged me as hard as she could. It hurts, but she can't really break any bones unless she's phased. Plus, she's weaker than the rest of the guys, being only half their size," he explained to them. "I can even overpower her if I catch her off guard."

They were appropriately jealous that he could do that.

"Just out of curiosity, how do _you_ guys handle that," he asked them, wondering what kinds of measure they have to take to not be hurt.

"We developed our own ways," Rachel told him, making disappointed faces at the other two girls. Her method was probably hilarious. "I always tie his hands behind his back," she said proudly. "If he breaks out of them, I stop. It's like training."

He was right.

"I mostly just make sure to talk a lot beforehand," Emily smiled. "It helps a lot, and we learn that way."

Rachel made a gagging noise.

"I'm always on top," Kim piped in brightly. Harry nodded his head at her, impressed. That _did _seem like a very effective way. "Keeps me in shape, too."

"Well," he started out slowly. "I don't think I can do much about that with Leah. She's very... passionate," he said, a little embarrassed. It was true though. His girlfriend was the wildest girl he'd ever seen. She wouldn't just let him be on top every time.

And it was amazing.

Emily spoke up. "Since we don't know much about what you can do," she shared a look with the other two girls, "we should just tell you everything. Just in case something is useful."

He nodded at them gratefully.

"I made a list," Kim announced, digging in her purse, surprising everyone there. When she resurfaced from underneath the table, she must have seen their expression because she explained, "I took notes when you told me all of this. Remember, Emily?"

She passed him the paper. It was a list, but half of them didn't really apply to him, so he skipped those. Her writing was impeccable, though, and he liked that.

* * *

**_Things To Watch Out For When Having Werewolf Sex_**

**_By Quileute Imprint Girls_**

**_Dangers_**

_**1)Super strength**. Self explanatory. Beware broken hip bones._

_**2)Body heat**. Take frequent water breaks. Dehydration will happen, Heat strokes likely if breaks are spaced too far. _

_**3)Oxygen. **Remember that a werewolf needs oxygen a lot less often, kissing can quickly become suffocation._

_**4)Overpowered ejaculation**. Only a danger when performing oral sex. If not prepared, you _can_ and _will_ choke. _

**_Discomforts_**

_**5)Full stomach**. High frequency rocking can cause motion sickness, say 'faster' at your own risk._

_**6)First time**. Size is a problem, prepare beforehand. Virgins especially._

_**7)Werewolf saliva**. More corrosive than human saliva, can cause rashes if sucking on the same spot for too long._

_**8)Slipping out**. When fully in rhythm, slipping out can actually bruise on the next stroke. _Pray_ it doesn't go in the wrong hole._

* * *

"I think a few of these don't apply to men in general..." Harry chuckled. The girls nodded, allowing that. "Like number four here-"

"That could happen to you!" Rachel pretested immediately. Leah could be a squirter, you never know."

Harry pinked at the unrestrained language, but Rachel kept going.

"Actually..." she read them quickly. "They _all_ apply to you. Just a little differently... Hm..."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "You think number six will be a problem? I may be an imprint, but I _am_ still male. I'm pretty sure I don't have the equipment for that to be a problem."

Rachel smirked victoriously. "But _she_ does." Harry looked at her in confusion. "How tight do you think it'll be? You'll have to work a lot harder to work it in there."

Unable to stop it, he pictured it. He was going to finish in ten seconds flat, if it was that tight and warm, he knew it.

"Okay, fine," Harry conceded, none too graciously. "What about the last one. I can't exactly hurt her, so that one is moot."

Kim shook her head in disappointment. "I already know what Rachel is going to say," she smiled, getting a smirking nod from Rachel. "But she can hurt _you_. If she's on top and it slips out..." she trailed off.

Harry winced and crossed his legs. He'd be on top. Or he'd magically reinforce it or something. He'd figure it out. Either way, he was done with this talk. It was fun talking to Leah about all of this, and it was okay for him to talk to his male friends about it... but talking to a bunch of girls was just kind of weird.

He ended up thanking them four times, as he tried to end the conversation each time, but Rachel kept going. Emily was the only one to get the hint, and got him to go somewhere else with her. He followed gratefully.

As he got up from the table to meet her, he did manage to slip the paper with Kim's notes in his pocket. He thought about showing it to Leah later, but he wasn't sure if she'd find it funny or get jealous.

Once he was almost out of earshot, Rachel shouted over to him, "And don't forget! You have to come tell us _everything_ once you two have sex!" Harry looked around and saw the few people there were looking at him and Emily in slight disgust. He would get Rachel back later.

At least Emily was a bit more mature. He knew that it had been her that insisted on this, as well, since he didn't know Kim or Rachel.

"Thanks for this," Harry nudged Emily, feeling touched that she tried to look out for him.

"It's the least I could do, after how much we hurt Leah." Her face was sad again. He liked her, but she was just as dramatic as Sam.

"Emily." He pursed his lips at her. "You guys talk about that too much. It's all fine now, let it go."

She laughed in response, agreeing that he was right. Of course he was right.

"So how did you learn all of this?" he asked, just to change the subject. "It must have been hard for you to go through all that without any advice," he winced, feeling bad for her.

"Well..." Emily fidgeted. "It was actually someone else that went through most of that first..."

"Ouch. That must have been hard. Especially if they weren't allowed to know anything about them being a werewolf," Harry felt really bad for whoever that poor girl was. He could just imagine it, going home with heat stroke, a cracked rib, and rashes, with more questions than answers. And no one willing to tell her what the hell was going on, since they were supposed to keep it all secret.

He shook his head. If he kept going on in that vein, he'd probably start getting mad at the Quileutes for doing that to the girl.

Besides, he couldn't really see any of the wolves doing that. Most of them were really nice, helping people out whenever they saw the chance. The only one that he could see doing something like that would be Sam. He would probably do the girl, then quote the rules not allowing him to say anything. He chuckled at the image, even if it really did make him want to punch Sam at the same time.

In fact, Sam probably_ was_ the most likely to do it, not only because he was an asshole, but because he was the first and only werewolf for a long time.

And he wasn't single when he phased... which meant...

"Who was it?" Harry asked her in a dangerous voice.

She winced, subtly edging away. It practically confirmed it for him. Only guilty people edged away.

"And he just hurt her, fucked her, and hid everything from her afterward?" he asked her incredulously.

To her credit, Emily didn't back down, glaring at him. "What was he supposed to do? He wasn't _allowed_ to say anything to her. The elders made that very clear to him."

"_Fuck_ the elders!" he growled at her. "It's not their right to stop people from saying what they want."

"Yes it is!" she growled right back. "They're the keepers of our culture, we _have _to listen to them. It's very important to us, it's what we believe in."

"Fine," he nodded, as if in understanding. "Your beliefs are more important than your friends. Good to know."

"That's not fair!" Emily complained, her eyes glistening from repressed tears. Thinking of Leah, he couldn't find himself to care if Emily cried. "I care so much for her. _We_ care so much for her. If we could have, we would have told her, believe me."

"You _could_ have," he countered. "Was anyone physically stopping you?" he raised his eyebrows challengingly. He scoffed, "In fact, there was nothing that _could_ physically stop Sam. He was the bloody Alpha for Merlin's sakes."

"Our Elders asked him not to," her voice was imploring now. "They helped him so much. He was all alone when he first phased. They taught him, explained everything. He owes them so much."

"He owed them _nothing_, he keeps the town safe. That's more than payment enough." Harry crossed his arms. "Even if he did, it doesn't work like that. You don't fuck your friends over because you owe people something. Especially people you claim to love."

"Harry, there were extreme circumstances," she defended. He'd heard that before. A thousand times from his headmaster, and all the adults in his life. Sometimes even his friends when they fucked up. It didn't move him.

She kept going. "You have to understand, the elders' words aren't just advice. In our tribe, they're _laws._"

"Well, that's the difference between us, I guess." He stood up. "I would break the law for the people I love. Leah would too."

Emily sighed, and he saw a tear spilling out, but he couldn't find it in himself to comfort her. Not after they hurt Leah like that, and _especially_ when they kept trying to excuse their behavior. If they felt remorse, he would try to understand. But they couldn't even admit that they made a mistake.

He had enough of it for that day.

Pushing his magic, he cast a small notice me not charm at the floor around them, making everyone near them look away. Emily looked startled when she saw the spell.

"I'm going to Leah. Please apologize to Rachel and Kim for me leaving," he told Emily.

He saw her start and open her mouth to stop him, but he apparated out before she said anything.

* * *

Leah was extremely worried.

Harry was acting very weirdly after he came back from his trip with the imprints.

She was walking away from Emily's house, planning on going to her house to tell her mom and brother that she was going to be sleeping at Harry's again(she didn't want to admit she'd sleep at the Cullens), when he apparated right next to her.

He had just popped in, maybe a foot away, even though she hadn't gotten home yet. Harry seemed just as startled as she was, though, looking around in surprise, as if that wasn't where he wanted to land. Then he saw her, and looked at her intently.

And not in the sexy way, more in the dramatic last-moment-alive-together kind of way. The really emotional way.

Then he lunged at her, hugging her tightly. She enjoyed it for a few seconds before getting worried.

"Harry?" she asked him, concern in her voice.

He pulled back, grabbing her face. His eyes were locked onto hers, she could see something rattled him.

"You know," he said slowly. "If something happened..." he trailed off. She was starting to get really worried now. "If you needed anything, you know that I wouldn't let anything stop me from fixing it, right?"

If anyone else had said it, she would have told them that they were being overly dramatic, and that they needed to stop watching so many gay romances. But Harry was different. Not only did it make it okay, just being him...

And he just looked so_ serious_ about it.

She nodded, moving slowly in response to the tense atmosphere. He kept going. "Nothing is more important than you, you know that right?" he widened his eyes, practically begging for the answer.

If she wasn't so worried about what had brought this on, she would have been crying with happiness. As it was, she couldn't repress the smile that came on. She nodded again.

"_Nothing_, Leah. Nothing," he repeated. "Not laws, not money, nothing." She was really losing the fight to those tears.

"Are you okay, Harry?" she asked him, finally fighting through the sudden emotional assault that he attacked her with. It was really unfair, proclaiming himself like that not ten seconds after he appeared. No warning or anything. Girls only _dream_ about stuff like that. The real thing was kind of overwhelming.

"Yes," he laughed brightly all of the sudden, not easing her worries at all. "Let's go to the Cullens, I'm knackered."

"Okay..." she mouthed at his back, as he walked away with a spring in his step. Maybe he finally cracked, going completely insane. She'd ask one of the Vampires to diagnose him. They probably had psychology diplomas somewhere in their crypt. Probably Carlisle.

He would be all:

"_I'm so sorry, Leah, but he's suffering from insanity. You see, it's quite contagious, and he's been spending too much time with you._"

And she would be all:

"_Well... fuck you then._"

Whatever. She'd think of something better later. She decided not to ask the stupid vampires for help, anyways. They'd probably act all superior about having psychology diplomas. They act like they're super modest, but Leah knew better. If they were really modest, she'd never know that they had so many things. They play the whole modest card to be able to show off even more.

Vain leeches.

Still, she did need to do something about Harry. He was clearly hurting about something, and she didn't have any clue about what. The only thing she had to go on was that he had just come back from hanging out with the imprints, but they were a very passive bunch, so she couldn't see them upsetting Harry, of all people.

If she hadn't been with him, she'd blame Sam, naturally.

As it was, she didn't know what to do about it. The best she had was to keep watching him, and be there in case he needed anything. As much as she wanted to badger him, she knew it wouldn't do any good, and it might even make him close off more.

She might not force it out of him, but she'd be there whenever it came out. Worst case, she'd beat it out of him later.

* * *

The Cullens' bathrooms were _really _nice.

That was one of the things that was on Harry's mind.

The other was Leah, who noticed something was wrong with him. It was inevitable that she would, she really _did_ watch him like a hawk, Seth wasn't exaggerating. Not that he minded, most of the time; just when he wanted to hide something from her.

And that wasn't often at all. This was the first time that it happened, and even then, he just wanted some time to think about it first. He was planning on explaining everything to her.

Though he couldn't really say he minded how she watched him, even now. Usually she would fire off whatever questions she had, not really filtering anything that goes through her brain. Most people would tip-toe around stuff that he wanted to just get through, and then badger him when he wasn't forthcoming and didn't want to talk. It was _very_ annoying. With Leah, she was normally a chatterbox, but as soon as he didn't want to talk, she would leave him alone.

Figuratively. She would still be around him, offering silent support.

Even now, they were in one of the many rooms that the Cullens had, getting ready to go to sleep. The Cullens had been nice and fed them – mostly Leah – and offered everything from clothes(Alice) to books for entertainment(Carlisle) to sensual back rubs(Courtney). They had denied everything but the food(Esme), claiming that they were tired, and wanting to sleep early.

They had caught on to Harry's mood, too. Well, Jasper did. He watched the whole byplay. Jasper looked weirdly at Harry, then Edward cocked his head at Jasper, who furrowed his eyebrows a little. Then Edward nodded and told everyone that he was going to his cottage. It was fairly interesting seeing it all.

What he _thought_ happened was Jasper sensing his mood and had a passing thought, then Edward reading his mind, who in turn silently asked Jasper to elaborate more on what he felt. Then they had some kind of conversation in which Edward agreed about leaving him alone, ending in him leaving, with everyone else taking the cue.

Vampire gifts were handy.

At least his occlumency protected him from Edward's mind reading.

Courtney was the last to leave them alone, but she did get a small genuine smile out of him when she promised to stay quiet if she could watch. Leah told her in no certain terms that she wasn't allowed. Courtney could probably tell that he wasn't really in the mood to do anything that night anyways.

It wasn't just thinking about Leah and Sam having sex that bothered him. It wasn't. He had already known that Leah had been in a relationship with Sam before she dated him, and he was fine with that. It would be extremely insensitive of him to even mention that, especially when he had been in a relationship while she had imprinted on him, and made her suffer through months of it.

It wasn't just the fact that Leah had to suffer through a heartbreak even though those two gits could have at least told her the truth. Sure, what they did was practically unforgivable to Harry. Maybe not unforgivable, but definitely inexcusable.

And it wasn't even just that Leah could still be in love with Sam, and only love Harry because of the imprint. He knew that she had no choice in the matter in either case. No matter what the case was, he'd just be thankful that she loved him.

No, it was all of them put together that was bothering him.

He laid down heavily on the bed, feeling Leah sink in next to him.

Looking over at her, he saw that she was watching him, like usual. She was biting her lip, clearly worried, and if he looked hard enough, he saw she was fidgeting to stop herself from speaking.

If there was one thing that none of his other friends had done, was restrain themselves when he needed it. Not even Hermione, who was by far his best friend, who never turned on him, who was always by his side. Not even she could do that.

"You're kind of perfect."

He hadn't meant to say it.

"Only kind of?" It brought a smile out of her, so he didn't regret it.

"You snore," he teased.

She made a hurt face, "don't you know not to tell a girl that?"

"So says the girl."

She was clearly impressed by that logic. It _was _flawless, after all.

Leah kissed him after a few moments of silence. Slowly at first, but picking up slowly. Before it got too carried away, he stopped her with a hand on her cheek. She looked at him and smiled. "Stupid vampires can hear everything, right?"

He nodded, grateful that she brought that up.

It was clear to both of them that it was just an excuse, and not at all the reason for why he didn't want to. Truth was, he didn't fully know why it was plaguing him so much, but something about the talk with Emily bothered him something fierce. And he wasn't sure why, especially when it affected Leah more, and she had already forgiven them.

But Leah didn't know all that. She _did_ know, however, that Harry could have easily put up a silencing charm if the vampires had been the real reason for stopping, but she gave him an out. He took it, and bless her giant heart, she let him.

He was momentarily overcome with a feeling of unworthiness.

A few seconds later, he felt her kiss his neck, mumble a quick "I love you." Her warmth put him so sleep quickly, too, and he wondered if he'd even remember what he was upset about when he woke up next to her tomorrow.


	14. Interlude

**A/N: Just a little thing that as bothering me and I had to write. The next actual chapter will be up tonight or tomorrow. **

* * *

The Short Second Romance of Ginny Weasley

The Daily Prophet headline glared at me from where I was holding it between my hands.

_**HARRY POTTER'S POCAHONTAS**_

_**CLOSE FRIEND TELLS ALL OF HARRY POTTER'S MUGGLE GIRLFRIEND**_

Great. Now my humiliation was now complete. Public and complete.

Crumpling the newspaper didn't really make me feel better, but it seemed like the right thing to do. It was also the only way for me to crush Leah's smug little face.

It was too bad I couldn't do the same in real life. Stupid superhuman strength and speed. Maybe that was why she was so 'good' for Harry.

Mum was the only one that agreed with me... and that didn't really make me feel better, at all. If anything, she'd been getting worse with age. Losing Fred made her even more clingy, and we could feel it.

Ok, so clingy wasn't the right word. Pushy, maybe. Overbearing.

She seriously suggested some love potions the other day. She'd always told me little stories when I was little about her using a love potion for only a bit on dad, but she'd always said she regretted it... until Harry broke up with me. So it was probably about time for me to leave.

Too bad I couldn't find anywhere else to live. I guess I could live alone... but cleaning wasn't really for me. It was gross. Maybe I should just get a house elf?

There _was_ the one good place that I've been staying at sometimes... but it wasn't exactly okay. I mean, it was spacious, and there was a house elf, and pretty much everything I need... but I have a feeling that Harry wouldn't exactly approve of me living in Grimmauld's place.

But he _did_ tell me I could stay there whenever I needed... even if it was a few years ago.

Oh, well.

I'll still go ahead and find a new place. It's kind of lonely there, anyways, with only Kreacher.

Which is why I'm _here_ right now... again.

I've told Hermione a thousands times that I didn't want to see Leah, but does she listen? Of course not.

It's not like you're _in pain_ or something like that... oh no, you're just completely heartbroken, it's no big dead, Ginny. You'll get over it, man up.

Bitch.

I swear, if she wasn't pregnant...

I'm going to be so glad when that kid comes out. No more having to follow her when I don't want to, no more reading to her when she _insists_ she can't read, no more smushing food for her whenever she's particularly crazy...

But there's no way I'm going up to _that_ slag's room again. Especially now that Harry's probably slept there with her. And probably had sex.

Ugh.

God, I hate her.

No, thank you. I'd rather sit here in front of their house, staring at the people passing, than sit up there with Hermione, Leah and her friends, while they all glance at me with pitying looks. No, I'd rather watch these interesting people.

And there sure are a lot of people walking around here. Seriously. So fucking many.

And is that bloke _shirtless_? It's too bloody _cold_ to be shirtless.

I don't know, he's kind of far away, but he kind of looks shirtless.

Weird.

Maybe they're like Leah? That girl wears _way_ too little clothing for her own good. Slut. No wonder she got Harry to fall in love with her, showing off those legs all the time. If_ I'd _shown that much skin all of the time, he would have fallen in love with me too...

Except that I had been offering sex since for years, and he never took me.

Realistically, I know that it's the imprinting that did that. I know that it's the binding, unbreakable bond that made him all ready for it. And I _know_ that he would have sex with her, if they hadn't already. They were practically fucking each other with their eyes, even while I was in the room with them.

Fucking twats.

But it still hurts, you know? When I would throw myself at him, and he would reject me nonchalantly...

And now they were about to have perfect sex, all because the imprinting made her perfect for him. And she would enjoy him no matter what he did.

I really wished that sometimes. That I could have just loved him no matter what he did. Even when he asked me to marry him, and I had just barely been of age. I had felt claustrophobic when he asked me, looking all preened up and with such a hopeful expression on his face. I wanted to run away. I wanted to live more.

I wish I could have liked it... been excited about it. Leah would fucking piss her pants if he asked her... but _no_, not _me_. I had to be _scared_. So lame.

If Harry asked her now... Leah would look at him with a love that I would never be able to match, no matter how hard I'd try. A love that I've only ever seen on... well, Harry.

Hm.

And then they'd be so happy. So bloody happy.

It's just not fair. It's all so fucking_ romantic_.

Having a predestined soulmate that you just see and automatically fall in love with? That'd be brilliant. So utterly _brilliant_. And I _thought_ I had that with Harry. It was understandable, though.

Watching Harry as he held me, back in the Chamber, I _knew _I was in love. Nothing can compare to having a boy you have a crush on sacrifice so much to rescue your life like that. It wasn't just the emotional experience, but the sheer _impact_ that first sight made on me.

I woke up, and saw him holding a sword in one hand, strange blood still dripping from the tip, _his_ blood drying on his arm, dirt strategically placed all over him to make him even hotter, expression utterly fierce... how is a girl to forget that?

She can't, that's how.

But I guess it just wasn't to be, as Hermione says.

However... if _he_ isn't my soulmate... then who is?

Do I even have one? Would I ever even meet him, if I do? Most people don't ever meet them, so it isn't very likely that I will. But if I could, and it was up to me... what would they be like?

Probably someone powerful. I had _maybe_ been slightly out of my league with Harry, especially in the power department, but I could shoot a little lower. I could.

Maybe not the our generation's dark lord vanquisher... but someone sexy. I could settle for someone sexy.

I caught a glance at the crumpled newspaper, and saw the picture of Leah and Harry looking so fucking _happy_ together.

Lucky bastards. _Oh, look, I saw his eyes and I automatically found the love of my life, oh how awesome_. Fucking assholes. Lucky fucking assholes.

No one has it that easy!

I wish I did... I wish one of the wolves here would just look at me and do the bond thing. Imprint, whatever, I wish one of them would imprint on me and make it all better.

Sighing, I went back to looking at the people. They were dark, and strange looking in a way. But not necessarily bad, just... exotic. I have to admit Leah looks very exotic.

Most of them are a little short, though.

I'm not saying English people are _tall_ exactly, but some of these men were shorter than her, and she couldn't just -

Whoa.

Whoa, whoa, _whoa._

Who is _that_?

And I was most definitely right about the dude not wearing a shirt. This dude was most definitely not wearing a shirt. He should _never _wear a shirt. Because...

Whoa... muscles...

Harry definitely didn't have _that._

Oh, Merlin, he just scratched his arm and his biceps are bigger than my head!

Who was Harry again?

He looks a little bit like Leah, as well. Is it her brother? If it is, then holy fuck, is that family good looking.

Not that Leah is good looking or anything, because she's still a slag and everything – oh fine, she's hot. Whatever. With a brother like that, I don't care anymore.

Oh, how I wish he would imprint on me. I'd be on that like bristles on a broom.

Harry took months before he even broke up with me to date Leah. If I was still going out with Harry, and this bloke hit on me like Leah hits on him... I'd be on top of this guy, fucking him in five minutes flat. I'd take a couple of minutes to send Harry a quick break up patronus first, though. Maybe.

He hasn't really glanced at me, yet, though, so it's probably not going to happen. And I don't really want to date one of those wolves without an imprinting. I heard Leah's story. I'm not getting dumped again because someone I'm dating imprinted on someone else. It would be exactly my luck.

Date a guy, a wolf imprints on him. Date a wolf, he imprints on a guy. Idiot, thy name is Ginny.

Still. A girl could hope. Girls always have their hope when they meet the perfect guy.

Except those cut off shorts. Those would have to go. I realize they have to change them quickly, but how much longer would it really take to wear some jeans? One thing is practicality and another is just laziness. If they have enough time to change shorts, they have enough time to change jeans.

Oh, well. It's not like he would turn his head to look at me and...

Oh.

Oh, Merlin. Oh, Christ. Oh god. Sweet Merlin's Beard HE'S STARING AT ME.

He's staring at me, and he stopped walking. His eyes are completely wide, and he's staring at me. And he won't look away, and he looks completely stunned.

Could it be? Could he have just imprinted on me?

Oh, I can't feel my legs. He looks completely stunned, and I can't take this any other way than him imprinting. There's no other possibility. The poor bloke looks like he's just seen a giant mound of playwizards. Or a naked harem.

Or his soulmate.

Me.

He's staring at _me_.

Oh, god, he's coming towards me. He's walking right towards me with a completely besotted look on his face, and it feels so fucking good I could _sing_.

I'm not going to ruin it, though. I've been told my singing wasn't exactly pretty.

But the imprinting was supposed to make them love everything about you, right? So he would be the first to love my singing! I. Can. Not. _Wait_.

I can't move my legs, either. He's walking towards me, his face completely focused on me, and I can't feel my legs. Or talk. My lugs aren't moving. I'm not breathing.

I'm panicking.

This is the guy I'm going to spend the rest of my life with! Of _course_ I'm panicking. We haven't even been on a date, and I know we're going to end up together forever. We haven't even spoken yet, and I know we're going to be married. I don't even know his name, and I know we're going to have _kids_ together!

Oh, Merlin, this is nerve-wrecking.

Ok, slow breaths. I can do this. I can do this.

Let's think about something more pleasant, and not as... _final_.

Flowers? No, weddings have flowers.

Hair? No... old people have hair on weird places. And we're going to grow old together.

Sex! I can think about sex. And this guy is a definitely good thing to look at when thinking about sex. All that _muscle_. Just so much... so _much _of him. Would it be the same... down there?

Ooh, now I'm panicking for a different reason. They have super sensitive noses don't they? Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Maybe I could do a quick drying charm? Ugh, if only I wasn't so bollocks at silent casting with household charms...

Or... it could turn him on? I hope so. After all, the imprinting is supposed to make everything positive for him.

And that's good. Really good. There will never be any arguments that way. No fighting over anything. No breaking up.

He'll always be good to me.

So, I have nothing to be sensitive about either.

And just like that, I'm completely calm. Excited, even. This would be a new chapter of my life, with a guy who was going to be perfect to me, and who looked completely amazing.

This was good. This was _great_.

And he was almost here.

His face was still completely amazed, like he was seeing for the first time, and I would be lying if I didn't say that it didn't get my blood pumping. I could definitely get used to being looked at like that all the time.

My dreaded redhead genes flared up, and I could feel my cheeks fill with blood. I looked down really quickly, mostly out of reflex. I felt like I was eleven years old all over again. Except this time, the guy wanted me back.

His footsteps stopped.

"Hello."

His voice sounded so pleasantly deep and husky, and it was slightly breathless, attraction dripping from it. Shivers went down my spine, all jumpy and tingly.

"Hullo," I mumbled back.

"Can I _please_ know your name?" The way he said it, as if it was the most important thing he'd ever have to know, made me feel so appreciated, so _important_, that I couldn't find my voice.

Just the thought that someone would think it so _vital_ for them to know my name, gave me a huge heady rush. It just felt so powerful, having someone that into me.

I went to look up, to enjoy the feeling a bit more, when a voice stopped me. A third voice. Neither mine, nor the guy's.

"Ashley..." A shy girl's voice sounded from behind me.

My head sprang up and I looked around me.

The hot guy was standing in front of her.

He'd walked right past me.

Of _course_.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Pandemonium.

That was what Harry woke up to. Complete and utter pandemonium.

It had started out well. He had woken up with a boobs in his hands, and that was always nice.

And that was how long the good part lasted. After a few seconds, he noticed that the boobs were completely different. They actually weren't different sizes, and they weren't clothed differently, since they were both quite naked.

No, the difference was that one was very soft and warm, and the other was very cold and hard. It only took him a second to figure it out.

It was a second too late.

"You _bitch_!" he heard Leah scream.

"It's not what it looks like!" Courtney immediately protested.

Harry looked around. He was laying down in between both girls, who were both topless and staring at each other, both standing on the opposite sides of the bed.

As much as he didn't want Leah to kill Courtney, he really couldn't see how it wouldn't be what it looked like either.

He looked at Leah, and found that he had a hard time looking her in the eye, because of the situation, it was the same with Courtney. It had nothing to do with shame, and everything to do with the fact that they were topless. He thanked Merlin for the fact that they were too busy with their own conflict to cover up.

Well, Leah was too busy. Courtney probably wouldn't have covered up anyways.

"How in the _world_ do you think you can excuse this?" Leah asked in a dangerous voice. "I even _told_ you yesterday, that you can't lay in a bed with Harry!"

"That's not what you said!" Courtney exclaimed, a little fearfully. "You said that I couldn't lay with him in a bed _alone_. You were there, too, so I thought it would be okay..."

"No, it wasn't fucking okay!"

Courtney opened her mouth to explain, when they heard Emmett's heavy feet pounding up the stairs. Harry barely caught it, sounding more like a chainsaw to his ears than anything else, and lasting less than a millisecond.

The door sprang open, and Emmett appeared inside. "There's a situation, they want you guys to come downstairs."

Emmett paused and looked around, surprise etched on his face. It turned into a smirk, which he turned on Harry. "Nice," was all he said.

Leah made an offended noise from the back of her mouth and covered up.

Harry walked with Leah and Courtney behind him, while they bickered all the way downstairs, where they found all of the Cullens standing around, arguing with each other in whispers. Harry didn't catch all of it, but from their worried faces, it was bad news.

At least Leah looked unperturbed, apart from glaring at Courtney. The only problem with that was that Leah always looked like that when it came to vampire threats. She was a little overconfident in her and her pack's abilities.

But the confidence was hot to Harry though, so it was fine.

Leah finally told him what was happening. The Volturi had sent out three of their people to come visit them. They didn't know why they were coming, and that was apparently a big issue, but one that Leah just shrugged at.

She had also told him who exactly was coming. Their names were Jane, Felix and Demetri. If he remembered right from the files, Jane was the girl who could _crucio_ people, Demetri could 'point me' people, and Felix was just a big ass dude.

"So they have no idea why they're coming?" Harry asked her, while still watching the Cullens run around like headless chickens. "How did the Cullens find out they were coming?"

"Alice." Leah responded, sounding a little apathetic to Harry. "And no, they don't know why-"

"Because of _you_!" Alice answered suddenly in a shriek, making Harry wince. "I can't _see because_ of _you_!" she dramatically thrust out a little finger at Leah, getting all up in her face.

Well, her chest. The height difference was fairly comical, with Leah being the tallest girl there, and Alice being a whole foot shorter. Leah looked like she could snap Alice in half. Especially when looking at her arms, which were nicely muscled. If they had met back when he was in Hogwarts, she would have looked much stronger than him, which would have been embarrassing. As it was now, he could only find it extremely sexy.

Leah shrugged, making her muscles flex in ways that shouldn't turn him on, but did. Jasper coughed, getting his attention. Harry felt himself get turned off, almost like going under a cold spray. He nodded at Jasper in thanks.

"We can leave," Leah offered, pointing to Harry and herself.

He didn't really want to leave, he wanted to help with whatever it was. Leaving the Cullens to deal with it themselves wouldn't be nice. He also had the very real worry that it was about him. That was usually the case.

"We're not making anyone leave," Esme scolded dangerously. "Right, Alice?"

"Fine," she grumbled, clearly unhappy. "But try and commit to staying in one place."

Leah smirked. "Okay!" she chirped. She bounded over to Harry, looking remarkably like an overexcited dog. Then she pushed him over to a couch, marking her territory, and implying that Harry was committing to staying there as well.

By sitting him down on her lap.

She clearly spent too much time with teenage male werewolves. He knew exactly what she was doing, too. Trying to mark her territory to Courtney, who didn't look like the least bit like a threat.

Harry rolled his eyes, feeling too much like the girl in the relationship. Especially when he catered to her ego like that. Leah might be extremely low-maintenance in most things, but food and ego more than made up for it.

Then there was the fact that he was the only male imprint. Plus, she was the one that was always pushing for sex, while he was the one that teased her and set the pace. She was stronger than him. She ate more than him so he was always cooking for her...

_Wow_, he really _was_ the girl in the relationship.

He'd deal with that later. Rolling his eyes, and with a kiss on the cheek to soothe her ruffled feathers, he got off of her and sat next to her, ignoring the mocking laughter coming from Emmett.

"Any theories on why they're coming to visit?" Harry asked the room in general.

"To try and make up?" Bella asked, a bit naively in his opinion.

"To die," Leah growled, with her usual flair for drama.

Edward was the only one to speak sensibly. He was wearing his usual brooding expression. "My guess is that they'll use some excuse, but the real reason of the visit will be to get information on how we've survived so long."

"They probably can't use checking on Nessie as an excuse," Jacob's voice piped in.

Harry looked at him in surprise. "When the fuck did _you _get here?" he asked, having not seen him playing with Nessie on the ground.

Jacob looked just as surprised, only Harry was sure it was at his own lack of observational skills. He was proven right.

"I've been here the whole time," Jacob exclaimed incredulously. "I yelled like five seconds before Emmett went up there to get you."

"Oh," Harry smiled in understanding. "Those two were topless," he pointed to Leah and Courtney. "It was distracting." All the men there gave understanding nods.

"_Ahem_," Leah coughed _very_ angrily.

"I mean, Leah was topless, so I was distracted," he amended quickly. A satisfied nod came from Leah.

Even though they got nowhere other than bantering, their visitors still came a few minutes later. Which wasn't surprising, really, but it still took him by surprise somehow. The only thing relevant thing that came up was when Leah suggested they kill their visitors.

"Why don't we just take them out? We could destroy them _easily_!"

"_No_," Carlisle seemed alarmed at her suggestion. "We can't-"

"Yes we can!" Leah interjected, as Harry knew she would. "Especially if you let me call my pack really fast, it would be a piece of cake."

"Exactly," Edward cut in with a fast and urgent voice. "It seems _too_ good. They know that we could easily destroy them. I'm not even sure what their motive is for this. It's too fishy. They send two of their key players almost unprotected... we need to know more."

Harry thought about it, and went through what he'd been taught to do in this cases. Go back to the basics. He thought back to everything he knew about the Volturi, and everything that had happened between them and the Cullens. _Think about the basics_, he reminded himself.

"I think... that's it's a lot simpler than all that," Harry told them hesitantly.

The only response he got were raised eyebrows.

"You stated clearly in your last confrontation that you didn't want to fight," he pointed out. "And it's their protocol to send out a small part of their guard. I think they're both showing that they won't be cowed, as well as counting on your pacifist nature."

Carlisle nodded gratefully. He didn't want to kill them either way, Harry knew. Nothing was really decided, though, since all conversation stopped when they all caught something he didn't.

All of the vampires in the room fell silent, cocking their heads as if to listen. Leah did the same a second later.

Harry's hearing was better than practically all other wizards with only a few extreme exceptions. It had come as a result of living his whole life on guard, listening for threats. First it was his cousin and having to listen for ambushes from his gang, then it was listening for ambushes from Slytherins(and the other houses during second and fourth year), then it was listening for ambushes while they were on the run from snatchers, and finally it was listening for ambushes when he was on missions as an auror.

He was ambushed a lot.

Even with all of that, his hearing wasn't nearly as good as the rest of the people in that house. He would have only heard the running when they were a few yards from the house, if at all. The fact that the steps were so soft didn't make it easier for him at all.

So he cheated. He used a sensory spell to heighten his hearing, so he could hear them coming for a good five seconds before they got there.

From practice, he could differentiate between the three sets of footsteps. It was something that he had made a lot of use of in his raids, when working as an Auror. One of them was loud. Probably a brutish male, one that used his power more than anything. Probably the Felix bloke.

The next was the quietest, but seemed more powerful somehow. Or more like... efficient. The steps were longer than the others, much longer. The runner was hitting long strides, which showed more agility than brute power. He was probably Demetri, the tracker. As a tracker, he should know how to fight the best of them.

The last one was definitely Jane, the little girl. The steps were very numerous. At least three of hers to each one of Felix's steps, and even more to Demetri's.

He turned off the spell, happy with the small amount of information that he'd already gotten from them.

Carlisle was the one to go and greet them, letting them in at once.

The three of them trooped in, their gray cloaks billowing behind them, reminding Harry of his old professor, Snape. All three of them were rather peculiar, even ignoring the fact that they were vampires. Felix, who he now recognized from the picture, only made Harry think of one thing. That bloke was a big motherfucker. There weren't any other adjectives that came to mind. He was even taller than Emmett by a couple of inches, with a little more muscle, as well.

The other bloke was only a little shorter than his companion, but he reminded Harry a lot of Jasper, but without all the scars. That could go either way though. He could either not have gone through as much as Jasper and be a worse fighter... or he was so much better that no one even got as close as they did with Jasper.

Morbidly, Harry was sure it was the second one.

Then there was the little girl. Her face was the scariest to Harry. And not because there was a creepy little smirk that meant trouble for everyone. Or because, like the other two, her eyes were the freshest blood red he'd seen on any vampire.

It was because she looked like Luna's evil twin.

They had the same protuberant eyes, with the same stringy blond hair. They even had the same dreamy but slightly insane expression on their face. The only difference was that where Luna's smile insane in a cute way, where she looked like she was daydreaming about unicorns and cute things, Jane's smile was more insane in a serial killer way, and she looked like she was daydreaming about the deaths of everyone there. And enjoying it way too much.

Harry didn't like any of them. Leah's loathing being palpable only compounded the fact.

Jane acted as the leader, looking around at the house in obvious disapproval while the other two just stood quietly behind her.

"So what do we owe this visit?" Carlisle asked politely, but the disapproval was obvious in his voice as well. He did not want them there, that much was obvious. Especially unannounced, which was understandably quite rude.

Jane's voice was even creepier than the rest of her. It was way too high, like she hadn't gone through puberty yet. "We've heard... disturbing rumors, Carlisle."

"Oh?" Carlisle raised an eyebrow. "And what might those rumors be?"

Jane's smile was predatory. "You've been letting your... _dogs_ out, to hunt our kind."

Leah was visibly fuming next to him, so Harry rubbed circles in her hand to distract her.

"You _know_ that's bullshit," Jacob growled. "We've only been defending ourselves, something that was supposed to be _your_ job. _Wasn't_ it?"

"Please take your pets outside, Carlisle. I don't think they're housebroken," Jane sniped in an angelic voice.

Harry surreptitiously hit Leah with a _Petrificus Totalus_. He didn't want to have to kill them and cause a vampire war. At least she didn't look mad at him for petrifying her – he wasn't sure, actually, since the only thing that could move were her eyes. They weren't glaring at him, at least, so that was a good sign.

"Remember that you are a guest here, and should act like one, by not insulting others in our home," Carlisle warned Jane. "We also don't appreciate you accusing us, as well.

Jane looked away, her face indifferent. "I was only saying that it was a rumor, not accusing. No need to be so sensitive."

"What do you want?" Leah asked as soon as Harry took off the spell, which he did when he sensed the biggest danger had passed. Not getting an answer fast enough, she turned to Edward. "You can read her mind, what does she want?"

"I don't know," Edward said, looking reluctant. "Bella is shielding us, so I can only read the people that are shielded.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Patience, mutt. We've heard rumors of a new vampire in your coven, as well. One that can apparently... fly," she said doubtfully. "Aro is under the impression that it's another of the half-humans."

"We've only gained one vampire to our family," Esme explained with a loving smile, looking at Courtney with just as much love as the rest of the Cullens. Harry was repeatedly reassured that he had left her with them when he saw acts like those. "And this is Courtney Cullen."

Jane took one look at her. "Spare me."

Harry really didn't like her.

"Hm," Jane hummed, looking at _him _now. "You don't look like a shape-shifter. Or werewolf." Harry felt Leah tensing next to him and grab his hand in a grip so tight he was in real danger of breaking something. "Is it you?" she asked simply.

An instance later, she was a foot away from him, peering at him closer. The annoying thing was that the move was just a calculated action to piss off Leah, and it was obvious. As a vampire, she had seen everything she needed the second that she had laid eyes on him. Moving closer was completely unneeded, and was only done to provoke his girlfriend.

Worst part was, that it worked.

Leah growled loudly next to him, causing a chain of reactions. The Volturi guards shifted slightly, forming a loose circle that pointed out to everyone, so as to have a better fighting formation. Harry recognized it immediately. The next thing that happened was the Cullens pairing up, which was their default fighting formation. Jacob, as well, got in front of Nessie, and his body started to ripple.

Nothing as bad as Leah, though. He could feel the tremors underneath his hand, and knew that the only thing stopping her from shifting was his close proximity. She was always very careful to not do an Emily repeat.

He tried to diffuse the situation.

"Yup," he made his voice as cheery as possible. "Not a half-vampire though."

Jane raised a pale eyebrow. "Another human?" She turned back to the Cullens. "Broken the law, yet again, Carlisle?"

"There's nothing we could do about it, Jane," Carlisle tried to placate. "As an imprint of a shape-shifter, he's just as much part of our world as we are. It falls under the same category."

"Imprint," Felix snorted, speaking for the first time. "Disgusting. Pissing on their territory."

"Hm..." Jane hummed, cutting out any responses, but Harry could hear the mocking undertone. "I will speak to Aro about this, but don't be surprised if you are ordered to change him, just like last time," she shrugged daintily.

Yet again, he had to hit Leah with a calming charm. It was the fifth time he'd done so already.

"You. Are not. Touching him," Leah bit out through her teeth. He could hear them grinding, and was momentarily worried she would chip a tooth, but then remembered she would just regrow it anyways.

"I will follow my orders, mutt, and you will learn how to speak to your superiors!" Jane screeched, finally reacting back.

Harry did the only thing he could to protect Leah. He had been meaning to not speak of his magic, for the smallest chance that the Volturi hadn't had heard of it yet, but he thought it was better to announce it than to get in a fight. Plus, the ancient Vampire they had let go probably spread the news already. This was all probably just a test.

"Don't worry, I can't be turned," Harry announced in the most casual voice he could. He had realized that he'd never shared that with either the wolves or the Cullens. Thinking about it, though, it wasn't that unexpected, that it never came up. The wolves would never even mention any of their imprints being changed, since it would probably cause them nervous breakdowns, and the Cullens were smart enough to never bring that up with Leah around, which she almost always was.

"What?" almost everyone shouted in surprise.

"What?" he parroted back to them, faking surprise. Some silliness could only help.

"Explain," Leah ordered, but he could see the excitement in her face. He was distracted with thoughts of her ordering him. It was surprisingly hot. He'd have to explore those thoughts later.

"My magic fights the venom, just like yours does," he pointed to the two wolves in the house.

"We _die_, when we get bitten," Leah said worriedly. "Our magic fails at fighting it?"

Harry smirked cockily. "My magic is stronger."

In their little excitement, they had all forgotten the Volturi being there, at least until they spoke up.

"So it's true," Demetri's silky voice cut in. It reminded him a lot of Snape. "There _are _witches."

Harry made a face, especially when Emmett snickered at him. "I have a dick, you know..." Despite their situation, Leah gave him a knowing smile, which went straight to his groin. It said: 'Yeah, you most definitely have a dick.'

"Ugh," Jane broke their gaze with a disgusted noise. "Bitch is in heat-"

"Whoa!" Harry immediately protested, holding Leah down. "Out of line! Out of line!"

Carlisle finally had enough, and Harry was thankful for that. "I must agree with Harry, Jane. That is the second time that you've taken advantage of our hospitality. Now, I have to ask you to finish your business with us and leave."

As much as Harry thought it was going to end in a fight, Jane merely narrowed her eyes and complied. "All right," she shrugged easily enough. "We are just gathering information."

Harry rolled his eyes when she didn't elaborate. Vampires could be so dramatic. "What information," he asked in the most bored voice he could muster.

Jane didn't seem to appreciate that. "By our counts, and our counts are_ very _accurate, there have been three hundred and eleven vampires destroyed here. In the last two months."

"So?" Leah sounded just like a grumpy teenager.

"_So_, we can't allow our kind to go extinct because of one coven... and their pets," she gave another disgusted side glance at Leah, complete with a wrinkled nose.

"What am I then?" Harry asked with false cheer. He just wanted to distract Leah.

"Not even worth mentioning," was Jane's instant retort.

Harry made a face. He could retort that fast as well, if he had a super vampire mind. Or Hermione's.

"He's killed the most vampires out of anyone in this town," Leah cut in, her voice brimming with pride.

Harry, for his part, could only gawk at her incredulously. For someone who argued with him on every little thing that was a threat to him, she had definitely just put him in major danger. She'd basically just painted a giant bulls-eye on his head.

As much as he would deny it later, that had just proved that she was the male in the relationship. Only the guy would have a pissing contest at the most inappropriate moment ever.

Leah seemed to notice what she did a second later, as well, if her eyes widening meant anything. The horrified "shit," that came out of her mouth was a big tell as well.

All three of the Volturi turned to Harry, calculating expressions plastered on their faces. They seemed to be reconsidering everything they thought about him. Harry rolled his eyes.

They should learn occlumency or something, their faces were so obvious.

"You?" Felix scoffed with a skeptical expression.

Harry was getting bored by the dramatics.

"We'd have heard of him, if this was true," Jane shook her head, complete confidence in what she was saying. "Aro's lived thousands of years, and the few witches he's met were extremely weak. This little boy shouldn't be a problem."

Harry stood up, bristling at being called a little boy when he was over twenty years old. It was like Fleur all over again. While that was very little compared to their age, he knew enough about vampires to know that they didn't change, therefore not becoming any more mature. Jane was probably stuck at a thirteen or fourteen year old mindset.

"Why do you think that you never heard of us?" he challenged. "We have schools, ministries, more than you could ever _dream _of, and we kept it all from you." He chanced them not attacking him, and walked a few threatening steps closer to them. "You think yourselves _royalty_," he scoffed. "You think it's your right to rule..."

He lowered his voice, letting some of his magic seep project from him as he spoke.

"You're only alive because _we allow it._ Because it's convenient for _us_. If you start being inconvenient..." he let it go unsaid. Especially because he technically didn't have that power, and all of it was somewhat of a bluff.

He could tell it rattled them, something that he was sure hadn't happened to them very often. It tickled him inside to start shit like that.

Jane, though, seemed to come back to herself and glared at him with a malice that Bellatrix herself would have been unable to match. Then she glared at Bella, and he figured she was trying her powers on him, and that Bella was protecting him. He sent a quick smile at her. Quick enough for Leah to hopefully not see him smiling at her, what with her hating Bella and all.

He didn't know what made him do all that, honestly. Maybe it was all the vampires in the room; their magics put him on edge. He had gotten used to being around the Cullens, because their magics were slightly different.

It wasn't exactly a conscious thing, how their magics affected him, but they definitely affected him. Vampires had their own magics, and the older they were, the more ancient and powerful their magics felt to him. The Cullens weren't exactly young, but their nature was reflected on their magics, so theirs didn't feel as hostile.

Not many people even knew about it, only the most powerful could actually notice it, but the magic of people had effects on the people around them. Magicals were more sensitive to moods because of it. A strong enough magical could feel when they entered a hostile environment, by the angry magics. It was extremely unreliable, though. A weak enough magical wouldn't be outputting enough magic to be felt. A strong enough occlumens could control his emotions, hiding their moods. A tired person would have too little magic to be felt... there were too many possibilities.

So he didn't know if that was quite the reason for why he acted like such an idiot, confronting the Volturi guards like that. He got way too close to them for comfort, when he could barely widen his eyes by the time they could snap his neck.

Yeah... Gryffindors charge ahead!

So that's how his thoughts proved at least half true, and he did only have time to widen his eyes before a pale white hand shot out for his neck.

The only thing he could think about was _thank fuck for Leah_. He would never make fun of her paranoia of his safety again.

Before Jane had even decided to move, Leah was already lunging at her and shifting.

Now that he thought about it, it seemed a lot more like luck than anything else. Leah was probably already attacking, because there was no way that she could have reacted that fast. Not only that, but now they could claim they were baited and got to attack them.

And that was one of the least important things that he got out of it. The most important one was just how fucking beautiful Leah was when she killed some vampires to protect him. He'd never been quite as protected as that... it was nice.

Still, he thought he was quite over the acting without thinking phase. He'd been an Auror _Captain_ for Merlin's sakes.

Either way, he was pretty sure that he'd have to do _something _other than stand there like an idiot. The only problem was that in his – uncharacteristic, if you asked him – freeze-up, Leah had already chased the vampires out of the house, with the Cullens backing her up.

Harry rushed out as soon as his brain restarted, intent on protecting Leah as much as he could. The only problem was how slow he was, which he had forgotten when he rushed out.

So many mistakes. Mad-eye was probably rolling over in his grave.

Not only that, but with all the mistakes he was making, it wasn't really a surprise when as soon as he ran out, the vampires went to attack him again.

He should have seen it coming.

Yet again, Leah was forced to protect him, while he stood there, looking like an idiot and not being able to do anything.

He wondered if that's what Bella felt like when she was around vampires all the time. Except that it was probably different for her, since she couldn't see quite as much as him. It probably all looked like a blur to her, so maybe not as scary. Harry could see and hear everything that was happening, and had to live with it.

Harry could see as the big motherfucker grabbed onto Leah's leg, and he could definitely hear it when her leg broke. His heart lurched at the sound, and tears came to his eyes at the painful sound.

He just wished there was something he could do, anything at all, instead of having to stand there so helplessly. He wished he was stronger so he could punch that little bitch Jane right in the fucking face. He would destroy them all.

Edward sprang out from the trees, being the fastest. Harry could hear the rest coming from far off. How the fuck did the three Volturi lose them like that. Hopefully Edward could help Leah. At least until the rest came.

He saw Edward widen his eyes at him, just as Leah dove out of the way of another lunge, a pathetic kind of whine coming from her as she landed.

"HARRY!" Edward yelled at him, and Harry wondered why the fuck he was shouting instead of helping Leah. "YOUR MAGIC, YOU _FUCK,_ YOUR MAGIC!"

_...Retard_.

Only sparing a millisecond to get over his extreme embarrassment, he sprung up his occlumency shields out of reflex, and let a torrent of magic loose, right between the three guards and Leah.

That stopped them in their tracks. They looked completely shocked, even though he'd warned them that he could fuck them up. He guessed he fucked that up as well, when he completely forgot that he was a _bloody wizard_.

He took the advantage to throw as many fireballs as he could, daring to use both of his hands to launch them. It was a risky thing, using both, because his concentration could wane and he could end up making a mistake. Not only could he accidentally hit Leah, but he could even fuck up the spell itself, hurting himself.

But none of that went through his mind. He only wanted to burn those motherfuckers alive.

Too bad they were older than all the vampires he'd killed before, and much more experienced, as well. The little damage that the fire did would almost immediately heal, if it would even hit. At first they had scrambled to try and dodge them all, until Harry had finally gotten a hit in.

It proved to be counterproductive, since they were in pain for a second or two, and then realized that they weren't in that much danger.

All he could say, was thank fuck for Edward's family. They managed to drive them off.

Harry was a little mad that Carlisle refused to kill them, but he was thankful nonetheless for saving him and Leah. Without his broom, and without being able to ride on top of her, he was pretty defenseless.

Okay, that wasn't very accurate. He could still put up some pretty powerful shields, some of the more powerful fire could be spread around him(even if it was too hard to hit anyone with it when they were too far away, it made for an excellent defense), and a few other spells. So it was more like... he was offense-less.

Worst case, he could've apparated out. But it was still very risky, and he didn't want to get Leah killed. A single moment of lost focus could mean a rock embedded in his skull, if the vampires threw it at the right time.

So he thanked them nonetheless.

And he guessed he could see their point in the end – Leah definitely _didn't_ see their point – since Carlisle showed it was the right move.

Once he got Leah healed up – his magic was _extremely_ powerful at healing her for some reason, probably their bond – she raised some hell about leaving them alive. She got even more mad when Carlisle announced he was going to call the Volturi to try and play peacemaker. He was firmly on her side, until he heard their conversation.

"I realize this," he heard Carlisle saying. "But we were defending our family. Jane attacked first."

There was a moment of silence, to him at least, and then Leah growled. He would have been able to hear if he concentrated, but he'd thought it would be rude to them to eavesdrop. He was regretting it then. Being the only one not to hear wasn't polite, it was just stupid.

"Alright," Carlisle finally sighed. "I'll put you on speakerphone."

"Harry Potter," a friendly sounding voice projected out loudly, enough to where anyone would be able to hear it. "As everyone else would have heard by now, I would firstly like to apologize for Jane today. She can be... over-excitable." It paused and a very natural sounding chuckle sounded out. Harry knew it was fake, and he knew it was most likely Aro on the other end, but wanted to get in any dig he could.

"Hullo, nice to meet you, I guess..." he stopped himself, and tried to sound less awkward. "Would it be alright for me to ask you your name first?"

"Of course! Of course! How rude of me!" the voice responded. "My name is Aro." There was a pause. "Do you know about us?"

"Yes," he replied simply.

"Excellent!" Aro sounded cheerful enough, but Harry could see the grim faces of the Cullens, and the mutinous one of Leah's. "Oh, how wonderful it is to be speaking to you... a wizard! Oh, how _grand_."

Harry stayed silent.

"However," he sounded disappointed, "Jane tells me a few things that you've said... and I think I have to meet you now. Strictly procedure, you see. Basically meet and greet."

"Okay..." Harry responded, not having anything better to say. It wasn't supposed to be an agreement, but that's how Aro took it. The Cullens immediately caught on to his mistake, and they tried to shake their heads at him, but he caught on too late.

"Excellent!" Aro almost shouted. "Excellent, excellent. Carlisle can give you the directions and everything, so we expect you to visit soon. Do try and not take too long, Harry."

And just like that, Aro hung up.

Harry could only gawk at the phone. Vampires were kind of rude sometimes. And pushy.

"So... I'm not going there. Right?"

"Of _course _you're not going!" Leah growled.

Carlisle opened his mouth like he was going to disagree, but closed it right back up with a glance at Leah. Harry wasn't sure, but he thought Carlisle was trying to tell him to come back without her.

He didn't know how he felt about that.

After that, they talked a little about what happened, and agreed that if they had killed the three guards, all of the vampire world, including the Volturi, would have come down on them. They all(except for Leah) knew that, and agreed that they did the right thing.

Leah didn't disagree with the logic, she just thought they should have done it anyways.

Privately, Harry kind of agreed. If he could do it all over again, he still would have tried to annihilate them. He just couldn't.

But he had a solution to that.

He hoped.

* * *

Draco was determined.

His father, in all his wisdom, had given him a new mission.

It was a very important mission, one that he wouldn't fail. His family depended on it.

Because of the war, and the stupid decision to follow the Dark Lord, the Ministry had locked up a lot of their funds. It was entirely unfair, and showed how backwards their state was. How in the world would they rationalize not letting them get out the money he earned in his job, but allow his father to spend all that money on his new expensive cane? It didn't sound right.

But that's exactly what his father told him.

Draco scoffed. Idiots. The ministry was full of idiots.

He didn't know if he should be angry or sad at their incompetence.

Either way, now he had to fix it. They had locked up funds again this month, including his check, which he hadn't been able to actually use since he started working.

Fucked up, that.

But his father had a plan! It was up to_ Draco_ now, to make some extra gold for them. His father didn't specify _how_ exactly, but that was fine. If anything, it showed trust in Draco, that he didn't give specifics. Draco was free to do it his own way.

And he came up with a perfect plan!

All throughout school, he stayed away from the press, not wanting to give them a chance to sully his family's reputation. But maybe it was time to change that. The Prophet should give him a pretty decent amount of money for his interview.

He _was_ important, after all.

Walking with purpose, he entered the offices of the Daily Prophet.

If he was going to do this, he would only go to the _best_ reporter. The one that would tell the truth about him, and nothing but the truth. An honorable one.

Two elevator rides, three shouting matches and a spilled drink later, Draco found himself in front of a dark wooden door.

_Rita Skeeter_, the plaque said.

Draco smiled in triumph. They almost didn't let him in to see her. The idiots didn't seem to understand just how important the Malfoy name was. Thankfully, he fixed that. The proof was on the guy's shirt, where he'd smacked his coffee cup on.

He knocked on the door importantly. Three times. Thankfully, he remembered to focus on something else this time.

Oh, no. Draco wouldn't get caught off guard again.

"Yes?" Skeeter's face came into view, once the door sprang open. She had been sitting on her desk, typing something into a computer.

Draco stifled a grimace of disgust. Muggle technology.

He could now fully appreciate how useful it was, after all printing presses came from them... but that didn't mean _they_ had to use them. Skeeter should have just hired a muggle to do it.

He collected himself and puffed out his chest to show he was here for business.

"I am here for my interview," he declared, wanting to show as clearly as possible what he was there for, so that Skeeter would actually believe it was happening.

Although the ten other people downstairs didn't get it. But Skeeter was a professional, so she would be different.

"Oh?" she arched an eyebrow at him. He could tell she was impressed, that she was already excited to -.

"And you are?"

Draco sputtered. The amount of people that didn't know him was _staggering_. It just didn't make any sense.

"Draco Malfoy!" He might have been a bit more forceful than he should have in his introduction, but it was understandable, considering. It was frustrating, having to state the obvious.

Skeeter had a glint of recognition in her eye – _finally_, someone that was educated – and smiled. "You're the one that always gave me the info on Potter, aren't you?"

Draco bristled for a second, momentarily annoyed that Potter got more attention than him. He felt like he was back in school all over again. That, however, was overridden with a bit of pleasure at the fact that Skeeter remembered _him_. Most people either talked about his father, his mother, or Snape. Never him.

It was nice.

"Yes, I'm glad you remember," he gave her a genuine smile, but reigned it back in quickly. "Anyways, back then, I wasn't quite allowed to give interviews... because of the Malfoy reputation, you understand."

She nodded knowingly, even if her smile was a bit sickening.

"But now I'm ready," he nodded resolutely. It would be hard, to talk about his life, but he was ready. He could do this. "I'll allow you to do an interview on me."

He could see how excited she was at the prospect, not even bothering to stop herself from looking at the sky, silently thanking it for her luck.

With a happy sigh, she looked back down at the desk, not quite meeting his eyes – probably too awed, now that she knew what he was offering.

"Well," she started out, licking her lips in greed. Malfoy got ready to fend her off, as he was taught by his father with over-excitable fanatics. "I think we're going to have to put this off until I can save up enough time to do a _proper_ job of it. I just _can't_ let this opportunity go to waste by rushing it."

Draco nodded, satisfied with her respect for him. Now this was the treatment he deserved.

"Oh," jumped up a little. "Before I forget," she dug around in her desk, and brought out an official looking notepad. She wrote something in it really quickly and handed it to him, folded up. "Can you hand that to security when you go downstairs?" He looked at her in question. "It's to grant you more clearance," she nodded quickly, a little _too_ excited, if Draco was being honest. But that was understandable.

He thanked her and was about to leave, when he had an excellent idea(although all of his were). "Hey, I have an idea!" he let her know. "How about we get rid of one of our sessions today?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Huh?"

Somehow, he refrained from rolling his eyes. Some people were so dumb. Especially when compared to him.

"If we do a little bit of work today, it won't be as bad next time. Plus, we can learn a little from it, and be able to tackle the next sessions more efficiently." Really, he was quite surprised at how proactive he was being.

No, wait a moment, he wasn't surprised at all. He was quite awesome that way.

Rita sighed, clearly nervous about how important this was. "There's no way to say no, is there?"

Draco understood the sentiment. There really wasn't any way to say no to such a great idea, let alone opportunity.

"Of course not," he sniffed, keeping up the attitude his father taught him. "So let's begin. We can start in Backwards-chronological-order. I guess we can start on my latest job as an Auror Trai– Captain. Auror Captain," he smiled winningly. It wasn't _really_ a lie. He would be a captain soon.

He kept going.

"It's been a tough job, but you know what they say about the work and the pay off – hey. Why aren't you writing this down?"

"Oh!" she jumped, clearly so into the story that she'd forgotten herself. As much as he understood, he was _not going_ to repeat anything again. "Um..." she floundered for a second. Draco was sure she just wasn't ready to speak, after hearing him for so long. "Let me just... oh yeah! My computer records everything. Uh huh," she nodded all energetically again.

It must be exciting, being around him. He was almost envious of the regular folk.

"Good," he sniffed, keeping up with his father's teachings. Never show any weaknesses. "So, my last assignment was designing the security of this year's World Cup. You can't understand the stress that comes with the responsibility of having so many men under your command. After training each day – I mean... yeah. Every auror needs to train, no matter how experienced. So it's only natural, that I have to as well..."

He told her all about himself. Maybe, just _maybe_, he embellished a little... but only the tiniest amount, and only to spice up the interview a little. He wasn't harming anyone.

It was twenty minutes into his story that he noticed just how into it Skeeter was. Her eyes were glazed over, she was in _that_ much pleasure at hearing all of it.

"... so then I say, 'Don't worry, Potter, I'll protect you and your muggle girlfriend while I take out these vampires!' and of course -"

But at that moment Skeeter scrambled up, completely shocked about something.

"Potter has a muggle girlfriend? What?" she asked, her eyes wide. She was breathing hard, probably from how much his story had excited her.

"Err, yeah. He got her in the United States..." Draco noticed that she brought her Quick Quote Quill out, and set it to write on a notepad. He cocked an eyebrow, but quickly thought up why she would do that.

Since it wasn't about _himself_, she needed exact quotes in writing. That made sense.

"_Really_?" Skeeter leaned over closer, and he leaned back to get away from the stench of her make up. "And what is her name? How did they meet?"

"Um... Leah, I think. They were having some kind of gathering next door... her and like twenty guys from her reservation..." He wondered briefly if he should mention how she wasn't really a muggle, and how she was an animagus... but he didn't want Harry to kill him.

The girl _would _have to go to Azkaban for being an illegal animagus... and Harry would positively fuck him up. He saw how protective he was over her. Even more than the other two twits, back in school.

No, thanks. He learned that lesson.

Rita's eyes practically bugged out and she looked to be hyperventilating. "Twenty guys? Reservation?"

"Yeah... she's Native American," he confirmed, but did it a little defensively. He might have been against muggles in the past, but he was _never _racist. One of his best friends had been Blaise, after all.

"Ooh," Skeeter cooed. "What did she look like? Ugly? Beautiful? Fat?"

"Er, she's actually really hot, to be honest..." Rita's face lit up and she brought out a _second_ notepad out, and started writing by hand now.

Draco was getting a little annoyed now. If he didn't know better, he would say she was much more interested in this, and in Potter, than in anything he had told her about his life.

But that was ridiculous.

Still, that was nothing compared to how annoyed he was after ten minutes of repetitive questions about the girl, and her relationship with Harry.

Question after question; **How serious did it look?** _They weren't apart for more than a few seconds a day..._ **Were they intimate?** _I don't know... Probably. She slept over enough. _**What happened to the Weasley girl. **_He dumped her, thank Merlin. _**How did he hide being **_**Harry Potter**_** from her?**_He didn't. She knows all about his story, and everything..._

And on and on it went.

But he was a good friend, - was he really a _friend_? Weird - he never said anything about her being a witch.

By the end, he was ready to strangle her, since she seemed to care nothing about him anymore.

"Do you want me to just give you a fucking _memory_ or something?" he growled at her.

Contrary to what he was expecting, which was her cowering in fear of his prowess, she gave him a dazzling smile. "Yes! Absolutely!"

She brought out five empty vials, and set them all in front of him in a row.

Pointing at each one, she recited, "Their first meeting, a memory of him showing her magic, a memory of them going to their room, a memory of them kissing, and the memory of that date you witnessed," she nodded to herself and smiled back at him. "Please and thank you."

Grumbling, he did as told, his self esteem too low from being ignored for Potter, yet again, to think about refusing. Which he would have, had he been thinking right.

Skeeter thanked him once again, and told him how she'd see him again for their next interview, and to not forget to leave the note with security.

He did as he was told, then left home with low spirits.

Three days later, he would remember that he didn't get paid at all, and on returning, he would find out he wasn't allowed in the building.

* * *

Leah held on to Harry while he teleported them to an unknown place to. She had come back to his house as he was getting ready to leave. Once she saw his face, she didn't even bother trying to talk to him. His whole stance just screamed something grim and ominous. She just gave him a look that said she was coming with, and held on to his hand. Thankfully, he hadn't tried to fight her.

The cliff they appeared at wasn't one she had seen before. It didn't smell like the La Push part of the ocean. Not only that, but it was colder than La Push, which was saying something, since it was already snowing there. She looked around and saw the sparse foliage, wondering where the hell they were.

"We're in Alaska, I think," Harry answered her unspoken question.

"Alright," she answered easily. She wasn't going to press him right now.

He smiled a bit at her, showing he appreciated it. "I think..." he trailed off. His face became grim once more. "If a few ancients come back, I'm pretty much defenseless against them."

Leah was a bit puzzled. That was what she was there for, wasn't she? "I thought I would take care of those," she told him, a bit sternly.

"What if you can't," he said and then winced. He was probably worried that she took that badly. "It's just, you saw how strong they are. Not only that, but there might come a time where you're not in position to help," he said pleadingly, Leah having no idea what it was he wanted from her. "I just want to be prepared."

She didn't like it, and probably showed it.

"Just look at what happened with the guards today... I couldn't hurt them. I need something that will."

Leah nodded. "That's fine... but why all the dramatics?"

Harry winced again. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Well," he started out nervously, "I want to learn something..." he trailed off again. Leah looked at him expectantly and a little impatiently. "It's dangerous," he finally said, looking away from her.

"How dangerous?" she asked, and she felt a momentary sense of deja vu. It was like a flash of a connection, one to all women in history while their men did something stupid, all the while _knowing_ it was stupid, and doing it anyways.

"Well, it _may_ be the most dangerous magic to learn," he said. She looked at him like he was stupid. Which he was, for even thinking she'd let him try this. "Ever," he added on reluctantly.

"No," she said simply, and crossed her arms.

Apparently, that did the opposite of what she wanted, because Harry no longer looked scared of her, but a bit exasperated. Maybe she should have pretended to think it through or something, just to make it seem like she thought logically. She wasn't very good at the whole logical thing though.

"Leah... this might save all of our lives. Plus, it won't be nearly as dangerous with you here," he tried smiling at her. Then he resorted to flattery, as if that was going to work, "you have superhuman reflexes to get us out if it gets out of control. You're the fastest and quickest out of all vampires and wolves. You're probably the quickest being in the world right now!" he said dramatically.

_Damn it, it worked_, she thought. By the end she was practically glowing from his compliments. She _liked_ being the quickest, and she _loved_ her imprint telling her so. She scuffed the toe of her shoe on the ground and ducked her head down to hide her face. "So what is it you're doing?" she asked.

She could hear the smile on his face when he spoke next, the cocky bastard, "just making some fire."

Leah looked at him oddly, "that's it?" She looked at him weirdly. "That's all you're doing is just fire?"

Harry fidgeted, "Well... it's _magical_ fire._ Maybe_ it's dark magic. It _might_ be cursed fire..."

Leah's eyes widened. That sounded intense. "At least you're not like summoning demons right?" she tried to joke.

"Demons are pansies," Harry scoffed. "Blow up their heads and they're done. They're not even worth the virgins you have to sacrifice."

Leah couldn't help it. That whole sentence sounded hilarious to her. She laughed at it, even at the unoriginal idea of a virgin sacrifice. That was probably the funniest thing about it.

Harry rolled his eyes at her, probably because she always laughed at the most random things. "Let's get back on track. The fire I'm going to summon is extremely fast, so if something goes wrong we need to get out of here as quick as we can," he warned her. Really, that was practically common sense. You see fire, you run.

"How do we know if it's going wrong?" she asked after a few seconds of worrying about how to make it safer for Harry.

"When the fire is at the final stage, the fire is going to have demonic spirits controlling it," he explained. Leah widened her eyes at this. "The spirits are going to form into creatures, usually snakes for some reason..." he shrugged. "While the fire is normal, it means I'm still summoning the fire, and the risk is fairly minimal. It should be easy for me to control the magic there." His face changed to grim again, "when the creatures show up, I have to try to overpower the spirits' wills with my own. If I fail, they'll probably attack me for summoning them."

Leah took a deep breath. She didn't know why in the hell she had agreed to do this in the first place. She should have just smacked the ideas out of him. Her imprint had to be the most reckless person she'd ever met. It was quite honestly a miracle he was alive.

"If creatures attack you, I get you out of here. Got it," she nodded resolutely, thinking she was just as insane as he was for agreeing.

Harry smiled at her cheerfully. "Yep. Easy." Then he turned around and pointed his wand at a little clump of trees that was fairly isolated. "Ready?" he looked back to ask her.

"Ready," she nodded firmly.

She got close behind him, ready to grab him and run at a second's notice. She was sure to put her head on his left side, so that she could see what was happening and be able to react faster.

Maybe she was just imagining it, or maybe she had been spending so much time with him that she was starting to get it, but she swore she felt magic building up. It felt something like electricity going through her, but without the shocking effect. It felt more like power just all around her. It was a little stifling after a second. Just when she was sure she was going to be able to actually _see_ the magic, Harry brought up his wand in front of him.

He slashed it harshly, making weird patterns in the air. She almost never saw him do that, he usually just pointed and did magic. He had explained it to her, but she wasn't sure she had it right. Something about it being harder to do without speaking or moving the wand. That probably meant that this spell was very difficult to do, as well. She tensed even more.

Harry finally finished the movements with a final slash, and shouted out in a voice that sounded as if it had two tones to it. It brought chills to her skin.

"_Fiendfyre!_"

Leah tensed and went to grab his shirt to pull him out, already scared.

...Nothing.

She looked around. "Er... did it work?" she asked, even though it was obvious it hadn't.

Harry dropped his hand and scratched at the top of his head. "Huh," he blinked. He brought his wand to his face and poked at it, as if asking it why it hadn't worked.

Leah immediately burst into laughter.

She laughed so hard she had to sit down. Even though it made sense, since he had to go to a school, she just had never thought about a spell failing before. At least with him. There _had_ to be failed spells, or else there would be no point in education, but she just had never expected it. Especially since she'd never seen _Harry_ fail at a spell. He was usually so confident with his magic.

That thought made her stop laughing. She hadn't once seen him fail at a spell, or potion or anything. Not only that, but he always had a solution for things, or a spell to do what she asked of him. Seeing him fail a spell finally drove it into her, how powerful he must be fore a wizard.

She should have seen it before. She _had_ seen it before, countless times, but she'd just never thought about how much lower everyone else must be. She should have. She'd seen his ex girlfriend try to clean the dishes with a spell the one time Leah had met her, but they weren't completely clean after it. Not only that, but the girl had said the spell out loud, whatever it was. She'd also seen his friend Ron say the spell to summon things out loud as well. Hermione was the only one she had seen do spells silently. Malfoy had said them out loud sometimes, as well.

The biggest thing that she just now noticed though, was that all of them _always_ used a wand. Harry rarely brought it out, and it was usually only when he fought.

She felt him sit down next to her. He looked like he was deep in thought, probably trying to figure out how to fix it. Was he feeling down about failing? It didn't look like it... She should probably try to cheer him up just in case.

"So... I thought you were one of the most powerful wizards, and now you can't even do a spell? Pathetic," she taunted. She wasn't really good at the whole being nice thing. He'd know she was joking anyways. He looked at her surprised, but had a small smile of amusement. She kept going. Looking at him with disappointment, she shook her head, "my imprint is so weak..."

He looked at her mischievously. "Oh? And I thought you were one of the quickest creatures ever?"

She looked at him surprised. "Well, of course-" and then he slapped her.

He actually _slapped_ her.

She gawked at him. "Did you just _slap_ me?" she asked a bit shrilly. It hadn't hurt. It hadn't even been hard or anything, even for him, but it was just so surprising that he would actually do that, that she couldn't do anything but stare at him.

His eyes twinkled at her. She gawked at the fact that he wasn't apologizing. "You can't even dodge a slap? Pathetic," he sighed at her. She sputtered. "My wolf is so slow..."

Her jaw dropped at his audacity. She closed her mouth and blinked, unsure of how to even retaliate at that. She opened her mouth to yell at him or something, when he suddenly jumped up and ran away from her, laughing. He made it about ten yards, since she hadn't even gotten up in her surprise, when she remembered... he had _slapped_ her!

Leah jumped up and tackled him, he had only ran a couple of more yards by the time she caught up to him. She made sure to really drive her shoulder into his side and then land on top of him, getting an _oomph_ out of him. When they landed, Leah grabbed his arms and pinned them above his head, and used her legs to straddle him, making sure he couldn't escape at all.

For a second, she was scared that he had hurt him. She had been really rough, but she looked down at him and saw his usual cheeky grin. Glaring, she put her face close to his to hiss at him, and drive the fear of god into him. Really though, she had to work better at it; he had never once seemed scared of her. She huffed at that thought, she'd show him.

And then he licked his lips.

All of her anger instantly turned into want. She was suddenly aware of just how close their faces were, and how her chest was now pressed up against his, how her groin was right on top of his, how he was pinned down and couldn't fight anything she wanted to do to him... she tried to calm down a little.

"Caught you," she whispered.

His eyes widened a little at her tone. He could probably hear the need in her voice. He licked his lips again. "What are you going to do with me?" he asked her, his voice equally as husky as hers.

Slowly, she brought his hands together, so that she could hold them both with one hand. That left the other free to stroke his cheek slowly. He was breathing harder now. She wet her lips and put her face closer to his, until the side of her nose was touching the side of his. She paused for just a moment, reveling in that simple touch, before bringing her lips to his.

His lips felt familiar, almost as if being without them was the less familiar feeling. She shouldn't have to be without them so long, anyways.

She kept the pace, opening her lips against his languidly. She felt him do the same, all of their movements full of affection, instead of just lust.

Their tongues came out at the same time, but barely touching. Leah licked slowly across his own, then his lips, then his teeth. All of it an at agonizingly slow speed. Then Harry moaned loudly into her mouth, destroying her patience with how sexy it sounded.

In a frenzy now, she dug her hands up his shirt, feeling for his pecs. Her head softly nuzzled his to the right(okay, she practically headbutted it out of the way) and her mouth dove to his neck. She sucked hard, strongly enough that a normal human would have a patch of skin missing.

Harry didn't seem to mind, by the ridiculously loud groan he gifted her with, and the bulge in his pants – and he _had_ to have charmed it bigger, because it felt huge.

As she licked and sucked lower and lower on his open shirt, she looked up at his handsome face that she loved so much. He was alternating between closing his eyes in pleasure, and staring at her with the most intense gaze.

* * *

She briefly wondered what he was thinking.

Harry couldn't tell her what he was thinking. Not because he didn't want her to know, but because he couldn't talk if he wanted to.

Her mouth should be fucking _illegal_.

If a normal warm mouth felt good, her warmer mouth felt bloody orgasmic.

And it was just his shoulder! He didn't think he could manage it if she went too low. He would surely blow it in – oh Merlin, his nipple should not feel that good. He had to push her off his nipple, because if he came from nipple play, he would be embarrassed as fuck.

She did come off, but her chuckle told him she knew exactly what happened.

And then she went lower, until her mouth was at his waistline. And she wasn't about to do what he thought she was, was she? Oh, Merlin, he hoped so.

She gave him a very sexy grin and reached for his belt, and oh _fuck_, she was totally going to suck his dick.

He closed his eyes, trying to block out the image, or else he would blow it just by the feel of her unbuckling his belt.

Ah, and now she was undoing the button, and she could feel the heat of her skin start to seep through the clothes. Another layer, and the heat would be orgasmic. Two layers, and he would be in heaven.

This was going to be the best day of his life, he knew it.

In fact, as she pushed down his zipper, he decided he was going to use this as his patronus memory. Especially when she puts the head in her mouth. That was going to make him blow, just by itself. And it was going to feel so amazing that he would be ready to go two seconds later.

She pulled down on his jeans, and he lifted his hips to make it easier, even if she didn't need it. It was just instinct.

As amazing as the thought of it was, he had to try and think of something else, because he could already feel himself getting close. Especially as she rubbed him through his _very thin _boxers.

He wouldn't be able to use this memory, he decided. He would get an erection every time he did a patronus.

And that would be embarrassing. Almost as much as the failed spell he did earlier. That hadn't made him feel very powerful.

Not as powerful as he felt right now, with Leah kissing him through his boxers. This was one of the times that he loved her shorter hair. He could see everything she was doing, and there were no obstacles. He felt like he could cast a million fiendfyres, except that he was too happy for -

His eyes sprang open.

He was too happy for fiendfyre.

Fiendfyre was extremely dark magic, which needed the negative emotion to power it, along with all the extras of a summoning.

He had been too happy with Leah behind him for it to work.

He had to use a negative emotion.

He knew how to do it.

"I GOT IT!" he shouted in excitement.

He stood up quickly, only momentarily falling down because of the pants around his ankles. Getting right back up, he summoned the wand that was on the ground, and put it in front of him, determined to get the spell right this time.

"Leah!" he turned back and smiled at her. "I figure out what was wrong with the spell! I know how to do it now! It'll work this... time..." he trailed off when he saw her. "Oh, _shit._"

Oh, shit was right.

She was on the ground, blinking up at him in confusion.

And just like that, like blinking it into view, he remembered what he just did.

Idiot. Moron. Imbecile. _Bloody fucking twat_.

He walked over to her and got on his knees to apologize. And it wasn't just because the jeans around his ankles made him trip and fall down on his knees. He was planning on doing that anyways.

He was about to beg for forgiveness, anything she wanted, when she saw her face. His breath caught in his chest.

She was crying.

Leah was crying.

He had made her cry.

He had never felt like such an asshole. Okay, so she wasn't crying _yet_. But tears were definitely in her eyes, and they could fall down at any moment. He had to do something about it.

So he fidgeted. He fidgeted and tried to figure out what to do.

He couldn't.

Oh, how he wished to know what was going through her mind, so that he could fix it.

* * *

Leah _was_, in fact, about to cry.

It felt horrible, getting dropped like that. Not the actual getting thrown. That hadn't hurt, of course. It was just getting ignored like that... when she'd been about to suck his dick too...

One would think he'd be looking forward to it more.

No, apparently he was thinking about what was wrong with his spell. That's how bad she was at it.

It hurt.

It fucking hurt.

Just this once, this one time, she became mad at him. Genuinely mad. Yes, she loved him with all her heart, but couldn't he at least fucking _fake _liking it? For fucks _sake._

She opened her mouth to, for the first time ever probably, attack her imprint. Even if only in words, although she hadn't ruled out punching him in his stupid perfect face.

She would.

But then he started talking, trying to make up for it, and damn it if it didn't work.

"I'm so sorry!" he half begged, half wailed at her. "I didn't mean to! I was just about to finish before you touched me and I tried to think about something else and I thought about how it was going to be my best memory ever and how I was going to use it for my patronus and how happy I am and how I could do a ton of fiendfyres and I just- I just- I'm _so sorry_, Leah." He was breathing hard, since he hadn't taken a single breath in that whole speech. He had almost shouted it, too, using twice the normal amount of air.

And as much as it still bothered her, and as much as she hated that they didn't get to keep going, like she always wanted to... well...

It just too fucking adorable.

She couldn't help it.

He was kneeling in front of her, his hands out in front of him. He looked like he was about to cry himself, and there was just so much desperation on his voice. Not only that, but once he finished, he was breathing harshly, and started fidgeting like crazy.

He would wring his hands, then stop and run his hands through his hair. He would bite his lip, then lick them when he bit them too hard. He would sniff and then flare his nostrils, as if they were just too confused on what to do.

All of this while his pants were still around his ankles.

She was only one girl, it was impossible to resist that. She tried to fight, she _did_. But the amusement just would _not _go away. How could she _not _love that boy. That adorably moronic boy.

She couldn't, that's how.

So she forgave him. Just like that.

Sure, she knew she probably shouldn't have. She should have probably stayed angry, because he _did_ hurt her.

But he didn't mean it. That much was obvious. Especially with how much he was fidgeting – and was he _chewing his nails_? Oh, that was cute.

So, yeah. She forgave him.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't learn his lesson...

* * *

"Leah..." Harry whined at his girlfriend. She was being uncharacteristically passive aggressive.

"Yes?" Leah pretended to not know what he was talking about.

He sighed and then tried to make hurt eyes, but it wasn't working. She was mad at him for the first time, and he didn't know what to do about it. He didn't have much experience with this situation, since she would usually love him no matter what he did.

It made him feel like the biggest git in the world.

"I'm sorry," he tried again.

"It's fine," she said loftily, looking away with a shrug.

"Leah..." he tried grabbing her hand. She smiled as him, but it was fake and didn't reach her eyes. She gave his hand a squeeze, but it didn't feel like a loving one. It felt more like her hand had a spasm; quick and jerky.

She even took her hand out of his a second later. "We need to go, don't we?" she reminded him.

He sighed in frustration. Amidst the silence that she had been giving him, he had rambled that he had wanted to go buy something for his two best friend's baby. It would be born soon, and he wanted to be prepared. He had been excited when she had responded with a little more enthusiasm than everything else he'd said.

He knew that magical things always excited her, and a trip to Diagon Alley would be too irresistible to her, even in her current mood.

Although, he couldn't admit to having much experience with her current mood. She was never mad at him, so this worried him more than he'd admit.

But wolves didn't leave their imprints. They couldn't... right? Harry bit his lip in worry.

Not only was he worried, but his thought process made him very aware of just how much he counted on her never leaving him because of the imprint. It wasn't right of him to do that. Maybe he wasn't appreciating her as much as he should have.

At first, he had been wonderful to her, giving her gifts all the time, doing whatever she wanted. But lately, he'd been sort of taking advantage of her. Regularly, he would make her do whatever he wanted, assuming that she'd be happy to do it because he wanted to. He'd never been proved wrong, since she never said anything otherwise, but he had to wonder.

The worst things that he could remember, were all the times that he teased her and even tricked her, for fun.

At the time, it seemed like fun, and she had even smiled and laughed with him, showing that she took it as he meant it. As a joke, sometimes even to cheer her up.

But... what if she saw it the other way. Maybe it was humiliating for her. Maybe she was just being nice all the time because the imprinting made her. Maybe if he didn't have that, she would have long ago kicked his ass, like she did to all the other wolves that tried to joke around with her.

He looked at her, seeing her in a completely different light.

Usually, he thought of her in a natural, sort of silly kind of way. She would regularly do what she wanted without much worry of what people thought of her. Nothing would stop her from doing what she wanted, making her seem very natural and real. And that also made her seem silly a lot, especially when she did things without any kind of forethought, putting her in ridiculous situations.

But now she seemed different. She was showing him her haughty and indifferent side, the one he was sure people saw for years before he'd gotten there.

He was ashamed he'd put it back there again.

"Alright," he sighed, feeling quite depressed. "Let me show you how to use the floo."

She nodded, her smile still fake, and walked in front of him.

They broke into his old house, it still being connected to the floo. Technically, he wasn't supposed to touch it again, but they wouldn't know. And he didn't have another place connected yet. He might think about connecting the one at Leah's house, but got even more depressed by how presumptuous he was.

He bit his lip and looked at her, thinking about how to bring _that_ one up later.

And then his heart rose.

She had been smirking at him, which she tried to hide by glancing away quickly when he brought his head up.

That little...

He could see it now, the little bounce in her step that didn't match her expression at all. She was just faking it all. He didn't know if she was trying to teach him something, if she was just trying to milk the situation, if she was just playing a prank, or if she just felt like it. On second thought, he was pretty sure she was just being competitive, since he did something like this all the time.

He was officially in love.

* * *

Leah's neck was in danger.

No one was strangling it(not that it would hurt her), no one had any weapons to her head(would a human have enough strength for a quick beheading? They might. Something to watch out for, she guessed), and there weren't any vampires around either.

She just could _not_ stop turning it and turning it, trying to see everything.

She'd been to Hogsmeade, and she'd been suitably impressed. All of the shops were wonderful once they'd gone in, the candy store had all types of things she'd never heard of... but it was nothing like this. Diagon Alley was _magical_. There was no other word for it, she felt like she might be a witch just by being there – maybe she should try using a wand? - and she couldn't stop goggling like a little child, her head on a permanent swivel. Harry stared at her amusement the whole time.

Acting mad was kind of hard at that point. It was all very inconvenient.

He probably did it on purpose, the crafty bastard.

Harry had noticed when she gave him a little smirk. She didn't actually want him to feel bad, after all. He'd already learned his lesson, and she wasn't one to hold a grudge(with _him_, at least, quite the opposite with everyone else). So now he knew that she wasn't really mad, so he was ignoring her mock-offended attitude.

Sure, she let him know she wasn't being serious. It didn't mean he shouldn't play along, though!

Selfish little imprints, ruining her fun.

Still, she would stick with it, she was too stubborn to admit defeat. She figured that eventually, he would have some doubts about her seriousness, if she stuck with it long enough.

But that lasted only until the bricks gave way to this... this _arcade_ of magical things. That's what it felt like. An arcade. And she didn't know which game she wanted to play first.

She didn't know. Should she go for food first? Should she go for those decidedly _human_ looking parts in a jar? She had no idea.

Although she could have happily gone to all of them, Harry decided to go to the most boring one, by far. The bookstore. What was wrong with him? She expected much, much better from her imprint.

She told him so.

"Bookstore? Seriously, Harry?"

A few heads turned to them, firstly curious because of her accent and overall appearance, she was sure, and then because they had spotted her boyfriend.

Whispers broke out. "Harry Potter?" "Oh my god, is that really him?" "Who is that he's with, she's bloody _hot_!"

Harry seemed completely used to it, by how his face didn't change at all. Well, she could see it was a little more blank than usual, but it had turned like that as soon as they flooed over – and wasn't _that_ the most unpleasant travel method she'd ever experienced. At least hadn't fallen down, but only because of her super abilities.

It was pretty impressive how he ignored all of it... at least until the last comment. All of the sudden he narrowed his eyes and started looking around for who said it. She would have told him it was the middle age guy in the green dress looking robes, but she was enjoying his jealousy a little too much to do anything about it. She shouldn't have felt that way, she already knew she won him over.

So she was still a girl, everyone else could suck it.

Anyways, they'd finally gotten away from the whispers by going into the bookstore, which was completely empty except for the worker, who yelled a muffled "I'll be right there!" from behind a backdoor.

Harry grunted some kind of response back, but considering the lady was far away, Leah didn't think it was very effective.

Shrugging, she followed him to the "Instructional" section of the store. Again, she wondered why they couldn't' go to the Quidditch store or something like that.

He must have seen it on her face because he rolled his eyes and told her, "we're getting something for _Hermione_. _Remember_?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, since she was still acting mad and all. It didn't have any effect.

Hermione _was_ her friend, though, so she dutifully went through books, trying to see anything she would enjoy. Naturally, she went to the most feminist shelf she could find. She found a few excellent titles, such as, So You're Expecting. Expect more from your husband, to the very informative, Sex While Pregnant, Illustrative Charms Guide, or even, 9 Months of Pain, 100 Reasons Why Impotency Curses Are the Best Choice, and many more.

Charming, the lot of it.

"I think the books are supposed to be geared toward the _baby_, Leah," Harry's amusement was obvious in his voice.

Again, she stuck out her tongue at him, not giving up on the farce. She would keep it up until he played along. Or fucked her. Either one. She wouldn't be picky.

"What did _you_ get, anyways?" she asked him in the most disdainful tone she could. She should get sneering lessons from Malfoy later, that boy could _sneer_.

He thrust a book in her face.

7 Most Useful Charms, Rituals, and Potions for Infants.

"How _boring_."

He just laughed at her. Taking a book from her full arms, he said, "We can't all find... what's this... 'Lesbianism, Best Way to Avoid Pregnancy.'" He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Trying to tell me something, Leah? Should I tell Courtney about this?"

His mocking voice was struggling to contain the laughter that was threatening to come out. She rolled her eyes. _Hilarious_. He's a fucking comedian, now, too.

Just as she opened her mouth to say something completely witty, though all that was in her head was 'how did _that_ get there...' the lady had come back from the back room.

"_Harry Potter_?"

Leah's eyebrows raised at her tone, there was a lot of familiarity in it. Way too much familiarity for a woman. They both turned around and looked at her, and she could see Harry's eyes widening out of the corner of her eyes when he saw her.

"Harry Potter!" she cried out gleefully, now that she could see her boyfriend properly.

Leah would have felt threatened, but the lady was obviously older. Probably in her fifties now, or maybe even sixties, if she accounted for how much younger magicals seemed.

But that changed when she stepped around the extremely high counter(and why the hell was it that high) because Leah could now see her more properly. And as much as she didn't want to think it, and as much as she didn't want to _admit_ _it_... well... there was no other way to put it.

The lady was a _MILF._

She was a grade A MILF.

Curvier than anyone she'd seen, while still having a perfectly thin looking waist, her hips swung dramatically while she walked over. Leah immediately envied that walk. She had no hope of imitating that. Busty was a _really_ good word for her, especially with how much her breasts bounced with her walk.

And she definitely had no hope of imitating the flawless porcelain skin the lady had. There were a few wrinkles, but, _impossibly,_ they seemed to make her even _more_ attractive. Even her hair was a beautiful mix of raven black and blond that Leah was sure no one could pull off as well as that.

Hands down, the lady was hotter than her, which got her thinking about just how good looking she was at her prime. Or maybe she_ gained_ attractiveness as she aged. That was possible. Yeah, she'd go with that. It made her feel much better.

_Fuck_, she was jealous.

Good thing that Harry would never touch her.

"Hi Mrs. Malfoy."

Leah's eyes widened, and her head shot to his face. _That_ was Mrs. Malfoy? _That_ was Malfoy's _Mom_? Harry had sex with _that?_

Her self esteem definitely took a few hits.

It took another when Mrs. Malfoy went in for a _much_ too warm hug, with way too much breast pushing into Harry, and more than enough warmth in her voice when she said, "I _told_ you to call me Cissy."

Harry hugged her back, even while he winced at Leah, and she couldn't exactly _blame_ him for hugging someone he knows. But she would do it anyways.

"Oh, you look_ good_, Harry," Mrs. Malfoy complimented after she stepped back, while reaching up to pinch his cheek in a motherly way. "This vacation has been really good for you."

At least that wasn't as bad. Leah knew Harry was a sucker for motherly gestures, for some reason. Kissing his brow with some hair stroking usually turned him into putty.

"Thanks," he said shyly. Leah rolled her eyes in annoyance at how easy her imprint was. "So what are you doing working here?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, you know..." the milf started ranting. "Ever since the war, we're broke," she gave an out of place laugh, like she was more than happy with that. "So Lucius couldn't stop me from getting a job anymore, with him not being able to buy me whatever I wanted. And I always did love reading..." she looked around at the store in adoration.

"Huh," Harry nodded with that revelation.

"Why did you think Draco started working with you?" she asked him, in a that-should-have-been-obvious voice.

"He said it was to move up the ministry ladder," Harry tilted his head in apparent amusement.

Mrs. Malfoy shook her head ruefully. "The things his father puts in his head..." she grumbled. "No, Lucius has his salary go to our family vault and then spends it himself."

"Wow," Harry raised his eyebrows. "Crafty bast-," he coughed, "guy."

"It's fine," Mrs. Malfoy laughed, a little smirk spreading on her face. "I got him back, anyways." Her smile was absolutely wicked now. "_Remember_?"

Okay. That was enough.

"_AHEM_."

Both Harry and Mrs. Malfoy sprang apart at her angry cough, and this time _it was_ angry, not faking it.

Seriously, it's like she was _wallpaper_. How rude.

"Err... Um..." Harry fumbled, while Mrs. Malfoy just turned a bit pink. "So, this is Leah, Cissy- I mean _Mrs. Malfoy_," he winced rather loudly. His eyes widened, and he added on quickly, "my girlfriend."

So she was an afterthought now. Lovely.

"Oh!" Mrs. Malfoy widened her eyes, as well, but hers were in recognition. "Draco told me about you!"

Leah merely raised an eyebrow, not inclined to be polite in any way, since the lady fucked her boyfriend and everything.

"Ooh," Mrs. Malfoy cooed and stepped closer, which made Leah want to back up a step. She didn't out of pure determination to not be cowed. "You are gorgeous. Well done, Harry, _well done_."

"Um..." Leah flushed, flattered even while she tried to stay mad.

And then they were off. Like a pair of gossipy old women. Who knew Harry could talk like that, and that fast?

"I _know_, right?" Harry bragged proudly.

"_Yes, _so pretty."

"She's brilliant, trust me."

"And so skinny, too!"

"She's perfect, absolutely perfect."

"I've never seen a more fit body. Toned and curvy."

"She's really strong too, stronger than me, even with her size."

"Really? She _does_ look like someone you don't want to mess with."

"Doesn't she?"

"Oh, yes. The short hair is what does it, I think. Sexy, and dangerous -"

"OKAY, That's enough!" Leah cut them off, flailing her arms. Her face was absolutely burning by that point. The fact that Mrs. Malfoy had been putting hands all over her as she praised specific things wasn't helping at all.

They didn't look at all repentant, either. Harry was still looking at her like she was just a prize dog that he was showing off... er... she'd just ignore that pun. Even if it was terribly accurate.

At least she got some compliments.

Not that she was fishing for them, or anything.

"Aw," Mrs. Malfoy cooed. "She's modest, too. Just like you are."

"I'm _right here_, you know..." Leah muttered.

They kept ignoring her.

"She _is_ a pureblood, isn't she?" Mrs. Malfoy asked. Leah had to raise an eyebrow at her, even if she wasn't being acknowledged.

Leah was gratified to see Harry level a glare at the lady – about _time_ that something went against her – and shake his head at her.

"Don't look at me like that!" Mrs. Malfoy defended immediately. "The house of Potter is an Ancient and Noble-"

"Yeah, but look at her boobs! They're gravity defying!" Harry countered, and Leah didn't even bother getting annoyed. As much as they were ignoring the fact that she was a _human being_, well... it was doing wonders for her self esteem. And after meeting the lady, her self esteem needed all the stroking it could get.

"True..." Mrs. Malfoy allowed.

"Can I speak now?" Leah asked, with not a small amount of annoyance.

Harry blushed and muttered a quick apology, which made it mostly okay. Mrs. Malfoy didn't, and neither did she look away from her breasts. There was a hungry look in her eyes.

What was it with Harry and making all the women around him horny? Not only that, but then they'd hit on _her_, which she guessed was at least better than them hitting on _him._ She'd have to make sure to keep her mom away from him...

"Sure, honey. Sorry to talk like you're not here. So are you a half-blood? Muggleborn?"

"Narcissa! I thought you were over that," Harry looked at her disapprovingly.

"I'm just saying, you need to- oh, _fine_," she sighed petulantly.

"I'm not a witch," Leah raised an eyebrow challengingly. "Got a problem with that?"

"I _guess_ not..." she grumbled reluctantly, shooting a dirty look at Harry.

"Whatever," Leah muttered. She thought it'd be a good idea to get Harry away from this... lady. Shockingly hot lady. "We're picking out these books." She took the two that Harry was holding and walked over to the counter, setting them there rather forcefully.

"What's up with her?" Mrs. Malfoy raised a perfect eyebrow.

"She knows about us..." he winced, _finally_ having some kind of proper response.

The door chime sounded, but Leah paid it no attention, because of what Mrs. Malfoy said next.

"Knows what about us?"

That's right. With a completely innocent expression, she completely denied it. It wasn't like she'd been practically flirting with her boyfriend, right in front of her and everything, and then gave little mentions of a previous time that couldn't be anything _but_ an affair.

Did she really think Leah was that stupid? Was it because she wasn't a witch?

"I know you had sex with him, you whore!" Leah screamed, having had enough of the whole day. Flattery aside, the lady needed to take a few(a lot) important steps away from Harry.

Soft gasps came from the door, and Leah cursed; she probably shouldn't have been shouting that. It could cause trouble for Harry.

She turned to see who it was, and saw Ron, Ginny, and a plump woman that was obviously their mother. Hm. That couldn't be good.

Both Ginny and the mother were only staring with wide, shocked eyes; but it was Ron's face that Leah found herself paying attention to.

As she'd already known from the first time she'd met him, his face was incredibly easy to read. It went through a range of emotions, and all of them were clear and loud for anyone to read. It started out as pleasant surprise(oh, my mate Harry's here, wicked); Confusion(wait, did his bitchy new girlfriend just say that he had sex with that lady?); Understanding(they _did_ have sex, oh my god!); Disgust(Harry had sex with _Malfoy_'s mom!); Awed(Harry had sex with Malfoy's _mom!_); Then, finally, predictably, anger(he cheated on my sister!)

Leah was reluctantly impressed with the range of emotions the boy could so blatantly display.

Then the inevitable explosions happened.

"_OH MERLIN!"_ cried the little Weasley.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!_"_ screeched Mama Weasley.

"_POTTER_!" growled the idiot Weasley.

Three different Weasleys yelled at matching volumes, if different pitches. Well, Ginny and Ron had matching volumes. Their mom could only be described as ear-raping volume. Leah actually covered her ears in pain, even her more than sturdy hearing sending her warning signals of overloading.

Seriously, every time that lady opened her mouth, Leah felt as if she was personally violated. She could just _see_ her eardrums trying to run away form the lady's voice, a little rape whistle in its mouth and everything. She would need therapy after this.

Poor Harry looked like he wanted to sink his head right into the ground and happily pretend he was an ostrich. Leah couldn't help but feel bad, even if he had just ignored her in favor of a woman he had sexual relations with – the _only_ woman's had sexual relations with.

His ex-girlfriend was looking at him like he had personally just killed her puppy, his best friend(she could relinquish that title, and she _did _hold it) like he had betrayed him to a dark lord, and his surrogate mother as if he had just gotten a girl pregnant. All of them looked about a hop, skip and a jump away from murdering him.

Oh, it was all just so sad.

...if she hadn't been too busy laughing at them.

And that was when Leah started to like Mrs. Malfoy a bit more. At first she had to hand it to the woman for being completely unflappable, not giving a single sign that any of it affected her. And it _should_ affect her. Probably the most, actually. Not only did she just get caught by people she disliked(Leah could easily tell that), but this could easily ruin her marriage, reputation and even the relationship with her son. There was no way that little Draco would take her sleeping with Harry lying down.

But the hot older woman didn't show any of that. The only emotion that she showed was a slight amount of disdain, one that Leah could tell was measured _exactly_. It wasn't big enough to be unseemly, and it wasn't little enough to be mistaken for anything _but_ contempt. It was perfect. Elegant and demeaning.

Leah could get on board with that. She didn't particularly like the Weasleys. In fact, she couldn't see how Hermione could be friends, let alone _marry _one. Maybe she was under a spell? She'd have to get Harry to check her for it.

Plus...

"Annoying, aren't they?" Mrs. Malfoy had somehow sidled up to her, while Harry had been getting yelled at. "Most undignified family I've ever seen, I swear..."

How could Leah hate _that_?

It was nice, standing there with her, ragging on the Weasleys, even if Harry was getting reamed pretty hard the whole time. There wasn't much she could do about it. Interfering would've meant a pierced ear drum, that lady could_ yell_. Mrs. Malfoy, however, turned out to have a wicked sense of humor. She would keep up a commentary, "Look at that stomach ripple, I can't tell if she's that angry, or if her voice is that powerful," or, "did you know she had seven kids? I reckon one is still stuck in there, she just couldn't tell the difference."

Just some good natured fun.

Eventually, Leah got tired of hearing them insult Harry, since he was the innocent in all of this. What kind of boy wouldn't try to have sex with the milf next to her, after all. She'd be more worried if Harry _hadn't_ had sex with her.

She stepped in when the big guns came out. "And what's this I hear about you dating some... some... _hussy_ now-"

Leah stepped in between Harry and the lady, not bothering to use regular speed. To them – except for Harry, who was super awesome – it looked to everyone else as if she just apparated in front of them. Silently.

"Hello!" she greeted cheerfully.

All three Weasleys screamed, and took three(very needed, in Leah's opinion) steps back. "What was that?!" Mama Weasley shrieked.

"I'm awesome. Anyways, I'm the hussy, nice to meet you," she thrust out a hand in front of her.

"Er," the plump lady was looking at her hand in trepidation. Apparently, she wasn't as badass as she thought, because her scared face quickly became pinched. Oh well, a lot of people weren't exactly her fan, that was fine.

"Molly," she introduced herself stiffly. "And I've read about you."

That threw her for second. Her fake smile dropped. "Read?"

"Today's Daily Prophet?" Molly prompted, as if Leah was a particularly dim child. Completely unnecessary.

She felt herself get pushed out of the way by Harry, which would have been rude... but it was Harry. Plus, he kept her hand in his afterward, so that made it better. "Seriously?" The redheads nodded as a unit. "Oh, come _on_!" Harry let loose a string of curses. "And based on your attitude with Leah, I'd say it wasn't particularly flattering?" he asked Molly, who reddened, looking vaguely guilty. Vaguely because she was still somewhat glaring at Leah.

"Don't you get a subscription?" Molly asked him, and she looked genuinely confused. At least until the next bit, "has she already made you forget all about your home country?"

Oh, brother, this woman...

"Excuse me..." she started, but Mrs. Malfoy just shushed her. Leah somewhat liked her now, but they weren't _that_ familiar. It wasn't exactly okay for the lady to do that, but it showed just how much respect she'd been getting lately – none.

But that was fine. She was still happier than ever, excepting the little hiccup last night. Maybe it was because she wasn't white, that she got no respect. Arrogant little white people, thinking they own the world.

She didn't end up paying much attention to what they were talking about, since she could only handle so much Weasley at a time, and she'd reached her daily dose. She'd even skipped going to the really colorful Weasley shop on that street, just because of the family name. It was very eye catching, but she wanted to avoid that family. Besides, she didn't exactly want to listen to them insult her over and over.

The only thing that caught her attention was when Harry pulled on her hand to let her know they were leaving. It made her catch the parting remarks from the Weasleys. "You never come to the Burrow anymore, Harry! Come this Sunday!"

"I'm not sure if I can, Mrs. Weasley... I'm sorry." As he was apologizing, Leah saw him make the mistake of looking at her briefly. Leah correctly caught on to what he was doing. Just asking her if she was ready to leave.

The _Weasleys_ however, took it completely wrong. She could even see what stupid thoughts they managed to actually think up. They either thought that he was too busy with Leah to do anything else, or that Leah wasn't letting him.

She wanted to believe they thought it was the first one, but she was realistic enough to know they would rather blame her for the second one. After all, what was their life without sticking some poor sod with some drama, and who better to stick the drama than her and Harry.

Obviously.

But she didn't stick around to even yell at them. With a quick, "we'll be there!" she left. She only took the time to briefly grin at their scandalized expression(y_es, bitch, I _did_ totally invite myself over_), before she was hightailing it out of there.

For about three steps.

Then Harry stopped her, reminding her that they hadn't paid. She had dreaded going back in momentarily, but found out that Harry had forgotten to get any money in the first place, so they had to go to the bank, anyways.

* * *

"Come, Mr. Potter," the Goblin growled angrily at her imprint. She didn't like that, but she was even more surprised when Harry talked back in an equally rude voice.

"Whatever, keep your knickers on," he shot back sourly. He even kept going under his breath, "ugly fucking midgets..."

Leah raised her eyebrows at him. He was usually so nice to everything, especially creatures that weren't human. Even the disgusting vampires that she might one day admit that they weren't so disgusting – a very far away day. There had to be a different reason than that, he was never prejudiced, even with her trying to _make_ him prejudiced.

"What..?" Leah asked him questioningly, not wanting to say anything offensive in front of the goblin.

"Goblins are all bastards," Harry explained, loudly enough for the goblin in front of him to hear.

She widened her eyes at him. "But- but you're never prejudiced like this!"

"It's not prejudice when it's true," he shrugged back, while the goblin just kept walking, not reacting to any of this. "They're cold hearted bastards, they'll admit it."

"Harry!" she gasped. "I'm sure you're wrong," she shook her head at him. "Look," she turned her nose up at him.

With purpose, she strode ahead, so that she was next to the goblin. Once she got his attention, she spoke with confidence. "Hi," she cheerfully waved at him, feeling awkward when he just stared back. "Err, I don't think that he's right, you know," then she got a good idea. "By the way, you can call me Leah, no need to call me Ms. Clearwater like before," she smiled winningly at him.

And she was totally right. It was a _brilliant_ idea.

Instantly, the goblin widened his eyes and looked at her with big shining eyes, making his pinched face and beaked nose look a thousand times... er... better? She couldn't really call it beautiful... but it didn't look quite as ugly as before.

"Really?" the goblin asked her, with such admiration that it pained her a bit, plucking at her heartstrings. No creature should be treated so badly that they would say 'thank you,' with such disbelief, when they're told to use first names. She was almost mad at Harry because he was a part of it. She nodded fervently at the little goblin, making sure it knew she was different. "Oh! Ms. Clearwater, I could never do such a thing!" he said dramatically. "A lowly creature such as myself would _never _dishonor you by thinking that I'm an... an... an _equal_!" it squeaked excitedly.

"Oh, you poor thing," Leah mumbled sadly. "You don't have to do that!" she exclaimed.

The goblin looked at her with so much awe that she couldn't help but feel flattered. It felt like she had done something good today, by making the goblin feel better. When it flashed her a huge smile that was all pointy teeth, it made her feel even more accomplished – and a little scared, if she'd ever admit it.

Feeling extremely proud of herself, she turned and sent Harry a _very_ smug smile, very eager to see his defeated expression. She would rub it in for weeks.

She should have guessed.

He – of course – was laughing at her. Really, it was like nothing respected her anymore. Even when she actually _did_ do something right. Unappreciative imprints.

Still, he could laugh all he want, bad sportsmanship didn't bother her. She'd already won this round.

"He's mocking you," Harry said through his snickers.

Oh.

"What?" she asked him, blinking. She turned back to the goblin, who'd already walked ahead, shaking his head and muttering about stupid humans in a low growl.

She wasn't even embarrassed anymore. It happened way too often for it to even affect her anymore.

* * *

_Finally_, they had stopped for something to eat. Leah was just about to start eating one of those little goblins, even as unappetizing as they looked.

Plus, she needed to do something else... "Alright. Out with it."

"Hm?" he asked her over his Shepherd's pie. It was much too big for how much he usually ate, but she knew he'd end up forcing her to eat it. And by forcing it, she meant he'd merely have to offer, and she'd inhale it. Maybe not even offer it.

"Harry..." she looked at him, warning clear in her voice. "Yesterday doesn't ring a bell?" she asked, rhetorically, in her opinion.

"Yesterday?" he repeated, looking innocent.

"Oh, come _on_," she groaned.

"Wha- okay fine... it wasn't anything overly important," he shrugged.

She wasn't going to let him off that easy. If it wasn't that important, then it wouldn't have stopped them from having sex last night.

And anything that stops sex_ must_ be important.

"Humor me."

He sighed all heavily and harried, but he complied. Somewhat. It was very reluctantly, at any rate.

"Well, something upset me when I was at the mall."

Yeah, that was it. That's all he said.

She'd gotten that just fine, without that critical piece of data. Sighing just as heavily as he had earlier, she tried another approach. "I'm just worried," she leaned over softly, grasping his hand. It was a bit cold, it being a little colder in England. "I just want to help. Kay?"

He looked like he might have cracked, but at the last second changed his mind and shook his head. "Really, it wasn't anything important. I won't even remember it in a couple of days."

That wasn't going to cut it. She'd have to bring out the big guns.

"I'll go down on you if you tell me?"

Harry choked on his food, spraying it all over the table. He turned red, but she wasn't sure if it was embarrassment, or just from choking. After he caught his breath, he looked at her with wide eyes, absentmindedly waving his hand at the mess. "No- wait, really? No, no." He flushed even more red and stuck a hug forkful of food into his mouth, effectively shutting him up. Leah cackled.

"Mhm, I was _about to_ earlier, anyways..." she whispered sexily, and watched in delight as he flushed. "Okay, we should probably talk for real, though."

"Yeah... I guess," Harry sighed. "Fine. Emily just told me how Sam is still in love with you and then... I don't know," he fidgeted some. "I thought you might as well. That maybe -"

But he was cut off. By her laughter. "You thought?" she burst out, laughing like a right loon. "You thought – you though _I_" - she had to stop to laugh more - "that I _loved_ him? You though I – _Jesus_!" she was off again.

Harry watched her throughout her whole episode, and slowly his frown became a grin. She knew her laughter was infectious. Especially because the idea was just so _ridiculous_. Who the fuck would love Sam when they had Harry.

Impossible.

She couldn't stop giggling all the way to the floo and back to their house, even when Harry paid for the books and then talked to one of his old teachers, one called Minerva. On the way, she wondered if there was anything else to it, but was too giggly to do anything about it.

* * *

Harry met with Carlisle when Leah had to go over to the reservation.

It turned out that he was very right about him wanting to talk to him.

When he walked in, he was immediately ushered upstairs to Carlisle's study. Edward was already there, leaning silently on a wall.

Harry didn't wait once he got inside.

He immediately put up a silencing charm.

"Thank you," Carlisle nodded.

Harry smiled slightly, and waited silently.

"Alright, we'll just come out and say it..." Carlisle told him, and he nodded in thanks.

Edward said it.

"We think you should go to Volterra."


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"We think you should go to Volterra."

Harry let out a surprised laugh. "Wha..? That's..."

"Yes, we've talked about it. We think it'd be for the best," Carlisle told him, and he sounded so much like Dumbledore that he had to make sure he hadn't sprouted a long white beard, or hid some lemon drops around his desk.

"Best for who?" Harry trailed off, cocking an eyebrow.

"Whom," Edward corrected.

Harry glared. "Best for _whom_?"

"You. Us." Edward raised his own eyebrow in response, whether as a warning or mockery, Harry wasn't sure. "_Leah._"

Harry let out a sigh and motioned with his hand to keep going, silently showing that he was willing to hear it to the end now, so they could stop all the posturing and dramatizing.

"Of course," Carlisle nodded, showing he recognized him as well. Then he leaned forward and put his hands on the table, with Edward mimicking him. It was all very business-time-like. "As we're not completely sure of your abilities, this was all mostly brainstorming... but our first choice would be the possibility of a compromise with them. Of course, only if your safety permits. Our plan A, if you will."

Edward took over. "When that fails," they both ignored Carlisle's faintly disapproving expression. "Our plan is a lot less defined."

Harry's lip twitched. "More vague than 'come to a compromise'?"

Edward rolled his eyes, but Carlisle answered. "We've written thirty five proposals, all with counter proposals depending on their response." At Harry's widened eyes, he elaborated, probably trying to soothe his fear of so much work. It wasn't very effective. "Some of them overlap, going to a previously written proposal, so it's less than it seems. Although, we have multiple questions on most of them... They're all tentative, depending on more explanations about your abilities."

Harry just whistled in response. "That's going to take _hours_."

"Unfortunately, yes." Carlisle nodded with pity. Harry wished he could think as fast as them, and not have to sleep. Just for one day, at least, so he could get rid of all that work that he was sure he was going to ignore and do something impulsive.

"I may try and get some help with this," Harry thought out loud, Hermione foremost on his mind.

"As you wish," Edward shrugged indifferently. "However, this is a rather miniscule amount of work, compared to how much we'll have to prepare for the other possibility."

"Which is?" Harry prompted.

"That you have to fight them, of course."

"Um..." Harry gave them an incredulous look. "I can't fight all of them. From what I read, half of the guard is older than a millennium. I can't even kill any of them until I master fiendfyre."

"What's fiendfyre?" Carlisle's eyes shone with interest. "Is it just more powerful fire?"

"It doesn't matter," Edward interrupted. "And no, that's not what we were thinking, Harry. We need more cunning plans than that. Your safety has to be assured for any plans we have. For example, fool them into doing something that will benefit us, leave traps..."

Harry nodded. "Leave recording charms, get layout of their base, those are all our advanced training checkpoints."

"Well, recording won't do much. Alice catches most of it, and they don't talk about important things, with Aro just touching them to read their minds. We also know the layout already," Edward rebutted both. "But you see our point. There's a lot of possibilities here, with your magic." He pointed to some papers on the desk, "most of which we could only guess at."

Harry nodded, already convinced he should go. It took very little convincing to get him to do something stupid. The only problem was going to be convincing Leah he would be safe...

As if reading his mind, Carlisle gave him a good argument to use later. "And we figured you're the safest to go, since you can 'teleport' out at any time." Harry's lip twitched, against his will. It was a lame joke, but everyone in Forks seemed to want to say teleport, even after he corrected them. It did its job though, and lightened them mood a bit. "We're reasonably sure that they don't know about that ability of yours yet. I don't think there's any way for them to stop it, even if they did. Is there?"

"Not unless they have some magical friends," Harry immediately shook his head. "Which I guess is possible, in their two millennium that someone put up some wards there..." he mused out-loud. "I can find out before I go in though, so that won't be a problem."

"Excellent," Carlisle smiled happily. "We should start then." Then he took out a notebook.

And by Harry's standards, notebook was a very vast understatement. Hermione had notebooks. The thing that Carlisle pulled out was nothing less than an encyclopedia on how to deal with the Volturi. Just from when Carlisle flipped through the pages to get to the end, Harry could see lists, diagrams, all kinds of scary things.

That much writing should be illegal.

Unless you're like, Hermione, or something.

"Er... now?" Harry asked with a wince.

Both Carlisle and Edward blinked, and Harry could see they were momentarily truly perplexed on why anyone would wait to do sucha _riveting_ activity. They really should meet Hermione.

"I guess not..." Carlisle floundered for a second, "before you go, if you don't want to work on this now... we have to talk about one last thing."

"Kay," Harry sat back down, since he'd already been prepared to leave.

Carlisle looked at him with concern, and Harry knew that had he not been a vampire, he would have taken off some glasses and put his hands together in front of his face, saying _we're here for you_. "We just want to make sure that you're feeling better."

"Of course," he blinked, honestly confused. "The potions I took the other day pretty much healed everything that day. And nothing else happened..." He paused and somehow got the feeling they were uncomfortable. "Why do you ask?"

"You haven't been acting like yourself lately..." Carlisle started off gently.

"Today, you acted like an idiot. Multiple times." Edward wasn't nearly as gentle.

"Oh," Harry flushed a little. "I was just... off my game. I was talking to Emily and she told me that... you know what? It doesn't matter. It's all good. Yes, I'm all better now, thanks for asking."

"Alright." Carlisle seemed skeptical, but did reasonably well at keeping it out of his voice.

All three looked at each other for a few moments, the air slightly awkward.

Harry decided to make a graceful exit. He stood up and stretched. "Well... I'm gonna..." and he walked away.

On his way to the stairs leading down, he decided to make a small detour and stop at Courtney's room(He was told it used to be Edward's).

He knocked lightly, and heard Courtney's sing song voice, "Harry!"

Then he was swept up in a bone crushing hug. "Courtney," he choked out. Bone crushing was not an exaggeration. He could feel his bones protesting.

"Happy?" he asked between gasps with amusement once she let him go.

"Of course!" she bounced up and down with her usual bubbly energy. "This is the first time you've visited me!"

"I visited you like five times already!" he protested. "I even slept over!"

"I meant without Leah," she waved off his protests immediately. "You only came to visit me that first day, after that you've only brought me the candy and potions and things, but you never stay." She pouted at him adorably at the last part.

He ignored most of what she said except for the most important part. "What's wrong with me coming with Leah?" he asked her with a small frown.

"We can't talk about her with her here, now can we?" she asked as if he was slow.

He could only give off a long suffering sigh, although, reluctantly, his lips turned up the slightest amount. "You're incorrigible."

"Uh-huh," was her only reply, complete with a bob of her head and everything.

Quickly, she pushed him into her room, with this being the first time he would look inside of it. It was... interesting, to say the least.

There was a bunch of pictures of him, a few of Leah and some for the Cullens on her dresser. There was also a mirror there. The rest of the room was full of... instruments.

Not musical instruments, just... _weird_ instruments. They were very random. Some rope on the corner, a chain hanging from the ceiling, a riding crop, a big fake penis– Harry choked on spit when he figure it out.

"Are those...?"

"They're for sex, yes." Was that pride in her voice he heard?

"Where did you even _get_ them?" he asked her incredulously. They had to have been ordered online or something, because he couldn't see Forks stocking any of these items. Especially the—if he was correct, which he wasn't completely sure he was—nipple clamps. "You know what, never mind," he shook his head, and made his way over to the most normal looking thing, a metal chair in the middle of the room.

"Oh! Wait, don't sit on that yet." And a second later she had flashed over to the wall and unplugged a wire, one that he just noticed was connected to the chair.

"Was that what I think it was?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Yes," she grinned at her room as a whole, now very obviously proud of her little collection. Even he was admittedly impressed. Some of those things even looked like some mild fun. Then she pushed him on the chair and flashed in front of him.

In front of the chair, attached to the floor and ceiling was what could only be a stripper pole. Courtney then proceeded to hang from of it upside down, holding on with her legs only. With him seating down their heads were level, and knowing her, she was planning on having their whole conversation this way.

Deciding it wasn't worth it to protest, he just went with it and shrugged it off. It also gave him a flash of stomach, with her shirt rising/falling up her torso. He didn't point it out, and even though he would never cheat on Leah or anything, girl skin was still girl skin.

Harry always liked seeing girl skin.

"So..." he tried to start a conversation, but he felt slightly awkward and a little distracted by the skin. He cleared his throat unnecessarily, but it was more just for something to do. "So what did you want to talk about without Leah here?"

Finally, she got a somber expression and dropped down from her perch. "I just wanted to make sure you were happy, that's all."

He smiled at her in gratitude and immediately tried to assuage her fears. "Of course I am," he told her, shaking his head at the absurdity of the question and how many people seemed to be asking him this lately. "Why would you think otherwise?"

She brought out a list, making his eyes wide in surprise. Quickly, she started rattling out reasons. "You didn't seem happy at all yesterday when you showed up, in fact you seemed quite sad; You didn't have sex last night which, contrary to what you led her to believe, wasn't at all about making noise; You could have just put up a silencing charm, which I know you're quite proficient in; She was overly territorial for someone who should be quite secure in her relationship; From the flashes I saw, she hasn't trimmed her-"

"Okay! Okay!" Harry interrupted her as fast as he could. "I get it."

She only looked at him expectantly.

He hated it when people did that. It worked too well on him.

"It was... erm..." he stopped and threw up a silencing charm. "It was my fault, not hers. Emily and all the other imprints took me out to lunch, sort of-"

"Why wasn't Nessie invited?" Courtney interrupted with a curious, tilted face. It looked weird on her upside down.

"I know, right?!" he nodded his head vigorously in indignation, not liking it either. "I don't know what is up with- it doesn't matter," he shook his head, too used to Leah interrupting him all the time to let himself get sidetracked. "Point was, Emily did some... things," he wasn't sure if it would be exactly all right for him to be divulging their little drama. "And they upset me, I guess. And _then_," he started to pick up steam, "then she acts like it's alright, claiming it was because of their bloody _elders_ that they did that. As if that absolved them of everything!" he waved his hands wildly. "Just like... like..." he put on a high voice and clapped his hands on the side of his face, trying to make a mocking angelic expression, "'Oh, _so_ sorry I just pissed all over our friendship, but don't worry. The _elders told me_ to.' The bloody twits," he scoffed and dropped the act.

It was like all of the frustration just kept coming out of him, like word vomit. He couldn't have stopped it if he tried. At least, if he had to pick anyone, Courtney was an excellent choice to unload on. She was loyal, nice enough that she wouldn't tell him to shut it, even when she should, and let him unload everything. Plus, he wouldn't have to worry about what he said so that he didn't hurt her, they were in that stage of friendship where they were very comfortable with each other, but not dependent at all.

It was nice, having simple things like that.

"And that's not all!" he shouted suddenly, making her blink.

"It's not?" she asked calmly, which was also nice, he thought, making it seem normal for him to shout like that. It certainly made him feel better about it.

"No!" he shook his head dramatically. "Then she tells me about how Sam is still in love with her, and makes me doubt that _she_ is, too."

"That's ridiculous," she interrupted him with a smile.

"Whatever," he grumbled, not wanting to admit it. "It's still Emily's fault. And Sam too."

"Of course it is," she soothed him, and he made sure to write a mental note to give her an enormous box of blood pops for Christmas. One at least as tall as her. "But you still should have known better, and that doesn't explain why you're so angry about it."

Okay, so maybe only as tall as Alice.

"It just grated on my nerves all day," he grouched, ignoring the part of him knowing better. He already knew that. "and it made me act like such a _git_."

"Is that why you were all..."

"Yes. It was at the back of my mind all day, not letting me concentrate or anything. And then I tried to forget about it and act on Jane, but that just backfired and made me feel more like an idiot and then-" he growled and banged his hand on the floor.

Courtney didn't even blink at his violence. It actually made it feel a little less satisfying, like he was just a child throwing a tantrum instead of a scary powerful wizard.

"Well, fix it then."

Now, _he_ blinked. _Simple,_ he thought, _just fix it_. As if he hadn't thought of that before.

"How?" he scoffed.

"Don't be thick, Harry," Courtney gently chided. "just talk to her."

"I did already," he protested.

Courtney just stared at him.

"We put it behind us," he insisted.

She stared some more.

"_What?"_

Stare.

"We _did_, and it was very- _would you stop looking at me like that_?!" he shouted.

Courtney raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, fine," he deflated. "We talked about how I thought she might still love him and she just started laughing hysterically. It made me feel better, and that was good enough for me."

She raised the other eyebrow.

He broke. "_Fine_," he threw his hands up. "I'll talk to her again." He saw her smile victoriously and glared at her out of principle, even if his mouth wanted to smile. "You're a twit too."

"I love you too," Courtney smiled and ruffled his hair.

Harry couldn't keep up the glare and smiled back. "So... anything I can help you with? I owe you for the talk."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I owed you tons already, but yes. There is actually something you can help me with." Harry nodded encouragingly. "I can't have sex with humans," she pouted at him. "It's not like what Edward and Bella could do. I mean... I can pass as just being extra tight with the right lube, but as soon as it gets good..." she made a squeezing motion with her hands, then one went on top of the other to motion something mashed coming out of the squeezing organ.

Harry had never been more horrified in his life.

"I know!" Courtney looked indignant. "Just when it gets good, too," she lamented.

Harry scooted away, crossing his legs, horrified expression feeling like it would never leave his face.

"So I was thinking... I need someone stronger, but I _love_ how warm humans are to me," she stared at the ceiling dreamily. "I want that. You're the only human I know that could survive that."

Then she looked at him, and Harry thought she meant him. He almost ran from the room screaming like a little girl, thinking about... _that_ happening to his dick.

Instead, he started some nervous ranting.

"I-I can't. I don't think I'm strong enough either, I think it's going to be almost painful with Leah- and Leah! I'm dating someone! I can't do that—it'd be cheating. And I'm not a cheater. I mean, I had sex with Mrs. Malfoy, but I hadn't really gotten back together with Ginny, even if it was obvious we would. But I hadn't yet! So I can't-"

"No, no," Courtney finally cut him off, as she'd been listening to his babbling with fascination and had taken her a while to snap out of it. "I'm still trying to figure out how to get Leah to agree to a threesome, but no," she denied, and Harry breathed a little easier. Only a little. Courtney leaned closer to him. "I was thinking about the guys from the reservation," she smiled a wicked smile. "You made that potion to make them not hate us."

"Sure, sure," he quickly agreed. As long as it wasn't him. "I'll find one for you."

Courtney clapped her hands together in delight and squealed, going in for another hug. Harry hugged her back, but he crossed his legs and leaned his hips away from her. He didn't think he'd ever be able to enjoy a hug with her again. Not with that image.

She stepped back and beamed. "Ooh, I can show you all my toys now. This one here, I call this one _oasis_..."

* * *

"_Emily."_

Leah tried to hide the annoyance in her voice when she addressed her cousin. After having seen Harry so distressed when coming back from their trip to the mall, Leah had no sympathy left for her.

"Er... hi?" Emily gave her a weak smile, and Leah was satisfied to see there was some real fear in it.

"Tell me why I shouldn't slap you," Leah ordered in her most imperial voice.

"I know, I _know_, I shou-" Emily started to grovel, as was her place, but Sam had cut her off.

"Now, see here. I will not have you come in here and threaten Emily when-"

"_Sit down, I'm still mad at you for attacking Harry_," both Leah and Emily said in unison. Leah shared a look of approval with her cousin. she tried to give her another look that said, "good job keeping your man in check," but considering her own relationship, she didn't think she could talk.

Sam immediately sat down. That satisfied her even more.

Then she went back to being pissed. As satisfying as slapping Sam around was, she had a cousin to verbally beat down.

"So?" Leah crossed her arms.

"I'm _sorry_," Emily insisted. "But I only told him more about our... history. That's it." Leah wasn't convinced. "Promise," Emily put a hand to her heart.

Leah slowly deflated. She might be irrational when someone hurts her Harry but, even now, she knew that Emily wasn't a liar. A backstabbing bitch sure, but not a liar. Leah was the liar, actually.

"Well, what'd you say then?" she asked, sitting down heavily on top of their kitchen table. Glasses shook.

Sam made an attempt at a protest. "Leah, watch where-"

"Shut the fuck up, Sam," she cut off absentmindedly without looking away from Emily.

"He got really upset when I told him about the elders—oh, and do you want some juice?—he got _really_ upset when he found out we didn't tell you about the imprinting, but he didn't want to understand that it wasn't our fault that we didn't tell you. They wouldn't let us." Emily finished with a huff.

Leah glowed inside. Sure, she had been pissed off the most about that—or at least that was the one point that she felt honestly indignant at. Everything else, she could see it wasn't actually their choice, but in that one point... yeah.

And Harry agreed. And defended her.

She was _all aflutter_.

"He spoke very rudely to Emily," Sam tried to scold her again.

"Shut the fuck up, Sam," she snapped again, but with a smile now. "Alright, I guess you're forgiven," she granted magnanimously. "As long as Harry does, at least. Also, as long as you give me some food."

Emily huffed, but set about making her a plate.

"Ooh, can I have some as well," a female voice asked from outside the doorway.

Leah turned around to see a younger girl looking hopefully at Emily. As was her female instinct, she did a quick stock of the competition. The girl was a little shorter than her, but still fairly tall for a girl. Her breasts were slightly larger, which she frowned at. There was no bra either. _Slut._ Leah conveniently ignored the fact that she wasn't wearing one either.

The rest of her was just as pretty, looking almost as fit as Leah herself. Practically no fat, except for her chest.

Her face had fairly standard Quileute features although, like herself, slightly sharper and not as wide. But unlike her, the girl managed to keep that sweet open expression that wide faces show. All in all, the girl looked very nice, pretty and friendly.

Leah didn't like her.

"Who are you?" she asked rudely.

The girl floundered for a second, probably at the unexpected hostility. But she was a girl, she should've expected it. This was nothing new. "Er. Hi Leah?"

Leah's eyebrows furrowed. "How do you know me?"

The girl looked around at Sam and Emily as if she was confused about why Leah didn't know her. Leah did _not_ appreciate this. It made her feel stupid.

Sam spoke up, though she wished it was someone else. "Leah... this is May." He spoke to her like she was retarded. Which she wasn't. She outsmarted him all the time when they were dating to make him do whatever she wanted, or even just to make him look stupid. So there(she did mentally stuck out her tongue at him). She was much smarter than him.

She also still had no idea who May was. "Yeah? So?"

"She's the newest of our pack," Sam said with the specific long suffering sigh that was reserved just for dealing with her. It really made her proud that she could drive him to that level of frustration to the point where gestures were specifically tied to just her. She'd spent hours brainstorming on how to piss him off, after all.

"Oh," Leah nodded absently. "Well, nice to meet you, I guess." She didn't really mean that.

The girl, though, just looked around at everyone else in confusion again. It wasn't _that _confusing for Leah to be nice... ish. Even then, the girl should just take it as fake nice, so she wouldn't be as confused.

"You've met, Leah," Sam sighed.

Leah looked at Emily weirdly, asking if that was true. Sam wasn't usually a liar—an extreme idiot, yes—but not a liar. Leah just liked insinuating he was. Just to piss him off.

"Yeah," Emily rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what she was doing. "She joined like a day after you imprinted. Months ago."

"How come no one told me?" she glared at Sam. If it was anyone's fault, it was his.

"I did," he glared back. "I told Seth to ask you to talk to her _weeks_ ago."

"Well, there you go," she immediately blamed. "It's your fault for not telling me directly."

"How am I supposed to tell you directly if you refuse to ever talk to me?"

"Not my problem," she shrugged, looking at her nails.

Sam clawed at his hair in frustration and Leah smiled. Then she caught the girl trying to hide a little snicker.

Interesting... Leah guessed she could give the girl a chance.

"So, what did you want me to talk to her about, anyways," she asked Sam when the thought hit her. "I mean, you went through all the same thing so there should be nothing new to– _oh_. Oh, you asshole, you haven't told her yet, have you?"

Sam and Emily both had the grace to look ashamed of themselves. As they should be. Emily especially, since she didn't have the excuse of having a penis between her legs making her emotionally handicap.

"You're both idiots," she thoughtfully informed them, then walked outside, signaling the girl to follow her with a little hand gesture.

Leah was satisfied when she actually did it.

"Okay, first thing first," Leah started out, making sure to sound very authoritative and generally serious. Chest out, voice slightly deeper but not enough to make it too deep, and spine straight. Check, check, check.

Then she forgot the rest of the sentence, trying too hard at sounding serious.

"Er..." she deflated with a slouch, then picked it all back up. "So, tell me about what you've been told so far."

The girl looked at her a little weirdly. "Er, everything? I can pretty much see everything they see, so it's not like they hid anything..."

"Actually," Leah corrected. "I'm sure they have. Not that they were hiding it on purpose, I just know that they repress anything to do with my... womanly issues..."

"What kind of issues... I haven't really had any..." the girl fretted.

"Exactly," Leah said emphatically. "You've had _no_ issues, whatsoever."

The girl wasn't getting it.

"You haven't had your period, have you?" Leah asked knowingly.

May's eyes widened. "No," she gasped. "I haven't."

"M_h_m. I haven't had one in over a year." Leah then looked away, trying to sound sympathetic. "I'm pretty sure that it means I- _we_ can't get pregnant."

She cringed and waited for the outburst that was sure to come. Leah herself threw a giant tantrum, but maybe this girl would just get depressed and break down. She wasn't sure which one she preferred.

"You mean I've been using condoms for no reason!?" May cried out in outrage.

Leah facepalmed.

Her whole town was just full of sex maniacs, it was official.

"You _also_ can't have a family, probably _ever_," Leah frowned at her.

"Eh," May waved her hand. "Who really wants that? It'll probably go back to normal once I stop phasing."

"You don't know that," Leah glared at her. She had spent a _long_ time angsting over the fact that she wasn't going to be able to have kids. How dare this girl come and be all rational on her.

"You don't know that it won't," May countered back. "Also, don't you have a boyfriend that can do all kinds of magic? He can probably fix that for you, if you really want kids... though I don't see why you would—annoying little things." May made a disgusted face.

Leah wasn't listening. She was stuck on the part where _Harry could fix that_.

He could. He definitely could. She knew he could.

Impulsively, Leah tackled the other girl and hugged her fiercely. She was just so happy about it all.

But she still didn't like her.

She hugged her and ignored all protests the other girl made, until she had finally given up and hugged Leah back. Then Leah left. She wanted a hug from Harry, not her.

Though she did make sure to stop and insult Sam really quickly. There was always time for that.

* * *

_The mutt is here again. Ugh._

Rosalie's thoughts alerted Edward that Leah had arrived, breaking him out of his own thoughts, which were centered around his gazing of Bella. She was looking particularly lovely today.

He thought about it, and decided to go warn Harry. He couldn't hear either him nor Courtney, so he must have cast some magic to shut them out. It stood to reason that Harry couldn't hear out of it either, and it wouldn't do for Leah to find him with Courtney in her room alone, even if he _was_ sure that it was innocent.

There were a lot of assumptions to be made when two people were found alone in a room full of sex toys.

He got up and dashed to his old room, wondering what the best action was. They wouldn't hear knocking, but he didn't want to exactly go in anyways.

He didn't see any alternatives.

He knocked for a second, just to be able to say he did it and then opened the door slightly. It made him satisfied, that both of them were seated fairly far apart, not looking romantically intimate at all. He didn't want to find a reason to dislike Harry since he quite liked him now.

"Leah is here," he told them simply.

_I wonder what she's wearing_,Courtney's thoughts were always lewd, if not overly loud. While unfortunate, it wasn't exactly uncommon. The difference with her was her lack of shame when it came to them. Most others had the decency to at least keep it to themselves. She would usually blurt out whatever she thought with absolutely no thought about how it would sound.

"I wonder what she's wearing."

Just like that.

"Me too," Harry nodded in agreement. It still rankled Edward something fierce when he couldn't hear what Harry was thinking.

On the other hand, it was also pleasant sometimes having to trust him without that. For some reason it gave him a higher respect for Harry, just like with Bella. He reasoned that it was the lack of distasteful things in his knowledge of them. Knowing everything someone was thinking was more a curse than a gift.

Downstairs, Leah had come inside without knocking. Edward had no idea how such an obnoxious, rude girl like Leah could be the perfect mate for someone as calm and kind as Harry.

It wasn't his place to judge, though. Harry also seemed happier than ever, and that was what mattered, he guessed.

_I don't think I've ever seen Leah wear a bra..._ Emmett was getting ideas. It was almost plotting, if one could ever call his thinking that, which was even pretty rare for him to do. _I wonder if I could hide all of Rose's... nah, I'd have to hide them out of state to hide the scent trail... but maybe if I _burn_ them..._

Edward tried as hard as he could to block that out. While Emmett's mind raced, it kept thinking of a very clear picture of Rosalie, something that Edward didn't want to think about.

_Bella, Bella, Bella. _

Much better.

_I really hope that Harry will like it... _Esme fretted upstairs. She and Carlisle were sitting together, looking over the papers that were part of a gift they'd gotten him.

It was supposed to be a little something to show their appreciation for how much energy Harry was putting into dealing with the issue of the rogue vampires. They were still trying to think of something similar to do for the Quileutes.

Harry(and Leah, since they shared everything) would get the biggest gift, since he would be the one going to Volterra. Edward really wished he could go instead, but Harry was the only one that was safe, with his ability to apparate out at any time.

The whole family(except Rosalie) had worked on getting the gift for him, even though it ended up being fairly easy—at least at first. All of them had scouted for a good one, but they couldn't agree. Predictably, Carlisle and Esme were entirely selfless in all their reasoning while Alice and Courtney were completely selfish.

After much pouting, Carlisle won.

"Let's go downstairs and give it to him. I'm so excited," Esme gushed, while Carlisle's thoughts quietly agreed.

He could hear Leah's thoughts complaining now. _Harry's going to smell bad now. Gross... or maybe I can twist this in a good way? Maybe if I complain _just_ right, I can argue that I need to give him some... refresh sex? eh. That sounds so weird. Spray? That sounds like I'm a dog pissing on him... shower? No, that would work, but I don't want that. Unless I'm there..._

He could see hundreds of pictures going through her mind about them in the shower that were creative enough to compete with even Courtney's thoughts. He would blush if he could. Though if he had those kinds of abilities, throwing up would be the closer action.

"Harry!" Leah almost squealed when they had appeared, sounding like they hadn't seen each other in days instead of that morning. Like always, her face lit up when looking at him, making her unrecognizable from the scowling girl that used to camp out on their yard with Jacob and Seth. While they hugged, he saw that Harry's face looked the same.

He could practically _smell_ the hormones.

No, not practically. He really could.

"Come on," Leah urged, pulling at Harry's hand. "My mom cooked and she's really excited to have you over tonight." _And away from this smell_, she wanted to add.

Edward cut in with a small cough, and ignored Leah's annoyed expression.

"On that subject, actually... we have something to show you, Harry," he announced.

Leah didn't seem any less annoyed, but looked slightly curious now as well. The girl was very nosy when it came to Harry, but Edward guess he'd been the same way with Bella.

In a flash, all of his family was standing in a line in front of Harry, smiling at him.

_Ugh, creepy,_ Leah thought, looking at their smiles.

Esme and Carlisle looked at each other and he could see their thoughts trying to figure out who should be the one to present it.

Then Alice took the folder from Esme's hands. "Here," she chirped at Harry. "We got you..." she put her hands in front of her as if to play peek-a-boo with him. "A house!" and she spread her hands out in excitement.

Harry was a good sport and widened his eyes as much as he could—which was obviously a little more than necessary—and thanked them profusely. Then they showed everything in the folder, which was just the deed to the house.

Soon, the paper was signed and there were hugs all around.

"We wanted to thank you for protecting our family," Esme was gushing a little. Edward had caught her thinking about turning him and adopting him multiple times.

_Oh, and _us werewolves_ haven't done anything, apparently. Ungrateful little bloodsuckers. That's fine, that's fine,_ It was hard to miss that Leah's thoughts were sarcastic,_ We wouldn't want anything from them anyways... _

The best way that he could describe Leah's usual thoughts was... petulant.

Still, Edward couldn't help but address the issue, even though it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for everyone to figure out that Leah had been thinking this.

"We've been trying to think of something for the Quileutes as well..." Edward said apologetically at Leah, who just narrowed her eyes at him, and he could hear her reminding herself that he could hear her thoughts.

Then her brain started doing loops about thinking that she knew that he was listening to her thinking about him listening...

The girl was weird.

He tried to anyways. "But we're still working on it. Sorry."

_Liar_ was all she thought.

"I have an idea," Harry spoke up, then looked surprised that he spoke. His mouth probably said it before he thought about speaking. "I've thought about this. You've given me some of the meat you hunted before... you could probably-"

"Jacob eats all of it, actually," Edward cut him off, not having to hear his thoughts to know where he was going.

Harry's eyes bugged out. "_All _of it?"

"Between Jacob and Seth actually," Esme corrected. Edward would rather blame it on his future son in law.

Harry just fidgeted then, and Edward could see he was self-conscious now that his idea was shut down. "Well, thanks for... yeah," he pointed to the deed he was holding. Leah noticed this and tried to get them out of there in a rude enough fashion that they would forget the awkwardness. She also mentally blamed Edward for Harry feeling uncomfortable for no other reason that she could.

Though he knew she would only use that excuse if Harry asked why she had been so mean when they left. She really just wanted to do it.

His mother made sure to fuss a lot over both Harry(who smiled warmly and thanked her a lot) and Leah(who fidgeted, made faces, and just generally acted like a brat) as they left.

His whole family stared at the door after they left for a while.

Courtney broke the silence. "You guys think they'll finally have sex tonight?"

Edward rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation at having to hear his whole family think about this now. Though Rosalie's was amusing. She was thinking about how if Harry couldn't touch her because of how gross Leah was(Rosalie still had a deep disgust for all things shape-shifter) then he should have broken up with her already.

With a last eye-roll, Edward went to his wife's and his cottage. He'd hopefully find some peace of mind there.

* * *

"You alright?" Leah asked him, softly bumping his shoulder with hers.

"Yeah," he nodded, but still seemed distracted.

Leah looked around, knowing she was about to seem really childish. "Hey," she prompted him again, this time bumping him a little harder.

She could see him wondering what the hell she was doing. "Hi?" he smiled, but it was mostly in confusion.

Her only response was to nod flippantly, looking straight ahead again as they walked. From the corner of her eyes, she could see him mouthing 'Okay...'

After waiting until he faced forward again, she bumped him again, this time almost sending him to the ground. "Leah..." he lowered his head and looked at her warningly. If he had been wearing his glasses instead of contacts, she was sure he'd be looking over the top of them.

"Hm?" she hummed with all the innocence she could sell.

Harry only rolled his eyes at her, entirely too used to her being annoying. _Well_, she thought with anticipation, _if he was so used to it_...

Harry yelped and Leah felt him almost fall on his face, having thrown herself on his back, obnoxiously yelling "Piggy back ride!" all the while. Even if it didn't make him feel better, this was terribly amusing.

"Christ, Leah! You're not that light, you know!"

Leah gasped as dramatically as she could, even though... well, yeah, she probably weighed almost as much as him. "How dare you speak about a lady's weight like that! Shame on you," as disappointed as she tried to sound, she didn't think it had much effect. At least not while she was still bouncing excitedly on his back.

Even though he sighed, acting irritated, she knew she had him. She even felt his heart pick up when she nuzzled his neck. As sweet as the moment was, it didn't last long. A few seconds after, she was bouncing again. "Faster!" she yelled, spanking him fairly hard.

Rolling his eyes, he did as she said, but his grin was unmistakable now.

She could tell he was running as fast as he could, and he was almost panting, but after running as a wolf, and flying on his broom... this just wasn't very impressive anymore. She tried to act like it was fast, whooping and spanking again, but Harry saw right through her.

With a growl, he told her, "fine... if this isn't fast enough for you..."

And then he started teleporting.

Again and again, he teleported. Sometimes only a few feet away, sometimes a few hundred yards, but that wasn't what mattered, it was how _dizzy_ it made her. The first one had caught her off guard, and she reflexively clamped all of her limbs around him, but the tube effect still hit her hard. Then the next ones, she at least knew what was coming, but it felt like the motion sickness hit her harder and harder after each one.

"Okay... I think you win..." she managed to whisper after the twelfth teleportation.

He must have heard it in her voice, because he immediately stopped and asked her "you alright there?"

"Oh yeah..." she gasped out. "I'm completel-" but she had to stop when her stomach protesting. She tried her best not to throw up, but it was a losing battle. When she started dry heaving, she asked Harry to get her off her back.

Only not in so many words.

What she really did was start flailing her arms around, trying to communicate that she was about to throw up, and that he might have been in the way. Harry caught on almost immediately. With a squeaky sound, he dropped her, right there on her butt. Not his greatest boyfriend moment.

Eventually the feeling passed and thankfully before anything actually came back up. "Kay, I think I'm good."

"Sorry?" he winced. Then he fidgeted. He felt bad, and that made her feel a little better. That he was that worried that he was fidgeting showed her-

Nope. He just wanted to poke her stomach and was trying to refrain from doing it.

She huffed and batted his hand away.

He just snickered and pulled her up. A soft hug took away any irritation she ever felt.

They were pretty close to the new house already, so it was just a few more blocks of walking where they made fun of all the passing people. A lady screaming into her cell phone about how she couldn't hear anything, a dude picking his nose, Sam's mom passing by and generally everything about her. Leah made sure to hide behind Harry when they passed her. She _hated_ that lady.

Then, after a only half a block from where they passed Sam's mom, they saw the house. She now understood the little smirk Edward was giving her, the dickhead. They bought Harry a house next door to Sam's mom. Those giant, cock-sucking assholes. They did this on purpose, she knew.

Rationally, she knew her town was too small to have that many options so this was probably the best they could do, but she still wanted to have Harry smite them all down with some magical thunder or something painful.

Then he reminded her that he was going to put an ass-load of wards on it that would give them more privacy than they would ever want. She was mollified.

The little tour of the house was done quick. They didn't have much time before they had to go to her mom's. Still it looked really good. Leah didn't even find anything to complain about.

The Cullens had obviously hired someone to work on it because everything looked new. That was impressive, considering that they couldn't even set foot in the town, so they had to have done all the business remotely.

"I love it," Leah smiled, though she didn't want to admit it, since the Cullens were the ones that bought it for him. It'd be better if _she_ had bought it for him, but she had no money, so that was out.

Dirty, pompous leeches, buying her imprint stuff.

His happy smile was enough to make her forget her irrational jealousy and just revel in his happiness. There wasn't any better feeling than that.

"Want to get some food?" he asked her. She warred between trying to act more like a girl, like she always wanted to act around him, or be comfortable and eat whenever he offered, like she always tended to act around him.

He was just so accepting. It made her too complacent.

But she chose a third option.

"Actually, Harry," she started, feeling nervous. "I think we should talk..."

He widened his eyes at her. "That sounds like the start of a break up."

"_What?"_ she asked in surprise, even though she could see how it sounded. "No. Why would you– I would never."

"I know," he replied with a shrug. "I just said that's what it sounded like."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever," she glared at him. "Now if you're done interrupting me."

"It's not my fault," he crossed his arms. "My brain goes into tangerines."

"Still, that doesn't mean-" she blinked. "Did you say _tangerines_."

"No. I said tangents," he shook his head.

"You said tangerines. I definitely heard you- _are you stalling_?" she asked him incredulously.

He groaned. "I don't wanna talk..." he muttered lowly, flopping on the bed.

She pushed the pang of hurt away and sat next to him, taking hold of his hand. "Please?" she tried using her big puppy-wolf eyes on him.

It totally worked.

He fidgeted and tried to look away, clearly crumbling against her potent assault.

"Fine," he fidgeted for a bit but finally talked. "What do you think it would've been like... if you'd never imprinted on me?"

She blinked and stared at him for a while. She couldn't picture it at all. He was such a central part of her life that it was impossible to see it without him in it. It wasn't right. Living without him... going on... well, it seemed like a pretty bleak life.

With a sad frown, more from thinking about those things than anything else, she answered him. "You're the only thing I can't live without... you know that, don't you? I would-"

"No, I know," he interrupted, looking slightly frustrated, as if she wasn't getting it. "I mean, what if you'd never imprinted in the first place, not lost me now."

She frowned, but thought about it anyways. Depressed and pining over Sam, that's how she'd be. She told him as much. "Why are you asking me this, anyway?" she continued.

She stared at him unrelentingly, waiting until he opened up.

He finally did.

"I just..." he stopped and looked away from her. "Do you think... if you hadn't imprinted on me... that- that you would've liked me?" he asked shyly.

Oh.

_Oh. _

_Aww._

She both wanted to coo at him, and punch him at the same time. It was so infuriatingly cute.

On the one hand, a shy Harry was a pretty rare thing to see, but cooing would probably be the wrong thing to do right now. She'd do it later when this was all settled and she could tease him without hurting his feelings.

Punching him was a little harder to ignore. Telling herself that he was her imprint and that she would regret hurting him later really helped. Also... as much as she hated to admit it...

Well, he sort of had a point.

She _wouldn't _have fallen in love without the imprint. Not that he wasn't perfect! He was. It was just that she wouldn't have given anyone a chance back then. As sad as it was, had she met Harry, she would've likely(surely) been a bitch to him too.

From wanting to coo, to wanting to hurt him, all she could finally manage was a sad, "oh, Harry."

He just sighed at her, sounding depressed. "Yeah, I didn't think so either."

She shook her head, pressing her lips together. "You've got it all wrong," she slightly glared at him. "You _are_ perfect for me, the only thing that the imprinting did was let me actually see it."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "The imprinting is making you say that."

"No," she hissed, actually punching him this time. He looked at her with slightly shocked eyes. "The imprinting isn't a brainwash," she told him angrily. "I," punch, "love," punch, "you." punch. "And I _would_ have, even if I hadn't imprinted. I just meant I was so depressed back then that I don't think I would've ever gotten out of it enough to talk to you."

He looked at her through narrowed eyes, rubbing at his arm. She forgot she was stronger than him, and had punched him quite hard.

"How would you even know that..." he asked her. "I mean...-"

She cut him off. "Would you have loved _me_ if I hadn't imprinted on you."

"Of course," he answered immediately, acting offended. The hypocrite.

"How would you know?" she shot back at him quickly. "You don't know what I was like before that."

He breathed out through his nose. "Yes, but I know the only thing that changed about you was liking me me more. You wouldn't be any different otherwise, and I would have still fallen in love with you."

"But you had a girlfriend," she reminded him. "And I was the one that chased _you_," she argued. "You even wanted to be just friends for months until I finally changed your mind."

He spluttered for a while, clearly not being able to argue against that. She was right and he knew it.

"Maybe," he hedged. "But I know that I had already felt more attracted to you after one dinner of talking to you than any other girl ever." He sounded really emphatic about that. "Whether imprinted or not, I would have eventually broken and gone to find you."

She stared at him in happy surprise. She hadn't known that.

"You just made it easier for me by being here all the time and making me so happy," he said with a sheepish grin. "If you hadn't insisted that we could be friends so much, I would've felt more guilty about Ginny and broken up with her earlier."

Leah looked up at him with shocked eyes. "You mean that made you stay with her _longer_?" she asked him with an irritated huff. "I was trying to get you to break up!" she threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Liar," he poked her in the nose. "You're too selfless. You were trying to make me keep both, cause you thought that was what I wanted."

"No," she insisted with a pout. "I don't like to share."

He laughed and started stroking her hair like how she loved, making her drop the irritated expression in exchange for a purring one.

"And I would have chased you instead," he said softly. "You're perfect, even if you didn't love me so irrationally."

Leah sighed and very very reluctantly took his hand away from her hair. "I was a total bitch, and sad and angry," she insisted. "You would have hated me."

He shook his head just as insistently. "I see you be a bitch to everyone else," he said with a fond smile. Oh, how she loved that someone finally appreciated her bitchiness. "I would have just worked harder to make you happy."

"And I would, too!" she said loudly. "Why don't you get that? Sure, I would've maybe put up a fight cause I'm a bitch and all, but you're just..." she took a few calming breaths. "The imprinting isn't a brainwash," she repeated, "it's just..." she couldn't find the right words, but finally found something and said it really fast, "did you know that I hate it when you don't tell me what's going on with you?"

Harry just blinked at her. "I just told you..."

"And did you know that you smell like shit when you come back from the Cullens?"

He made an exasperated face. "I thought you didn't mind-"

"And did you know that you get really pompous about treating the vampires nicely, and that we're inconsiderate when we treat them badly?" she threw again, her grin widening.

She could also tell he was getting slightly irritated. "I-"

"The point is that I can see your faults," she cut him off getting closer to him. "I'm not _completely_ irrational about you."

He just stared, a small smile playing the corner of his mouth.

It was pretty obvious where she was going with this, but it needed to be said anyways. "The imprinting doesn't _make_ me love everything about you. The things I love about you—even though it's almost everything—are things I would have liked before I imprinted anyways," she kissed him on the cheek. "You're touchy-feely like me, I can see how much you love a good snuggle." He tried to deny it in a manly way, with lots of arm crossing and exaggerated coughing, but she ignored him with another kiss on the other side. "And you're immature like me a lot, and even slightly vindictive sometimes."

This time he smiled proudly.

And she loved _that_, too.

"And even though I hate it when you're too nice to a bloodsucker, I really, _really_, love how fair and just you are. Your moral code is through the roof." Leah looked away in slight embarrassment and said, "at the risk of sounding very corny and gay—and I'm never saying this again—you... er... make me wanna be better." Then she grinned. "Only on the very important thing though, cause I still love pissing people off."

"Like our new neighbors?" Harry asked with a little smirk, and she was pretty grateful that he didn't make a big deal out of that very lame declaration. Telling him she loved him was much easier than what she just had to say.

They were quiet for a bit, just smirk/smiling at each other, until Harry let go of her hands and picked her up, putting her on his lap.

Leah could so get on board with that.

She helped him out by throwing one of her legs over him, so that she was straddling when he set her down. He kissed her, then. Slowly and lovingly. Their lips had almost no pressure on each other, barely gliding over the other.

He was very gentle with her, like he always was, and she was needy about him, like she always was.

So she kept it up as long as she could, trying her best not to let her constant need to press herself against him at bay, but it was always a losing battle. So after a few seconds she gave up, and put her chest firmly against him, practically trying to merge their bodies together.

Or at least all the important bits.

Harry pressed back equally for a few seconds and it made her instantly wet. She could him pressing against her leg and it was getting harder the more they kissed. She was about to reach for it when he pulled her head away. "Thank you," and she could practically see the profuse gratitude in his voice.

"Thank me with your mouth," she told him quickly, and pressed theirs together again. She would memorize every inch of that mouth, if she could. And she saw no reason for why she couldn't.

His tongue was hesitant when it snaked itself in her mouth, barely trying to touch tips. Leah was sure that it wasn't so much hesitance as just being really good at kissing. He never let her have it all at once like she wanted. He played with her, teased her, made her desperate and then made up for it in spades.

When she tried too hard to just swallow his tongue whole, he started kissing her ear and then the hollow space behind it.

There was nothing harder than trying to keep quiet when Harry was doing that to her. Her whimpers were loud and needy. Oh, she felt _so needy_.

She didn't know if he was taking pity on her, or was just trying to drive her even more crazy, but he took her earlobe out of his mouth and put his mouth back on hers. Now that she could think more clearly, she was kicking herself for not trying to use her hands to touch anything. She had wasted some important time not feeling him up.

Now that she could, she tried, but Harry just grinned at her and pulled her hands away. His grin said _yeah, you fucked up, so you gotta do what I say._

There were worse things than submitting to his wiles.

She had been trying to wrap her tongue around his and pull with it—she knew it was impossible, but it was fun trying—when he suddenly twisted his body around so that she was under him—all without breaking mouth contact. It was extremely fucking sexy. When he pulled away for a second, she took the opportunity to try and take his clothes off.

He, however, decided to yet again play coy and pulled her hands away.

_Boo, Harry_.

"You _said_ to thank you with my mouth," he whispered in her ear, making a shiver go down her spine from feeling his breath there again. Then he started sucking on her neck.

_Woo, Harry._

Any attempts made by her to take his clothes off as well were swatted away or generally thwarted by his teasing ways, so she finally just huffed and glared at him.

It was very unsatisfying glaring at someone on your neck. It really was a wasted effort. Worse was that she still couldn't quite contain all her little moans.

Still. She tried valiantly.

At least until he suddenly ripped half of her shirt and attached his mouth to her right nipple.

It really was impossible to glare while someone's doing that. Instead, she gasped, clutching his hair with her hands, and his hips with her legs.

She didn't even get to feel the cool air on all of her chest before his mouth was over it, making her mind go blank. It felt like all of her brainpower was forcefully grabbed and redirected on that one deliciously warm and wet spot.

He was doing it on purpose! Normally, she was slightly faster/stronger, but with her brain on minimum capacity he was running circles around her. He was playing her body like it was his own wand.

Was he using magic on her? It was possible.

Nothing she had felt before was anything like this. None of her experiences with Sam even held a cand- oh he just _pulled on _it. _With his teeth_. Leah threw her head back and _moaned_. It kept just getting better and better.

She looked down briefly when she could uncross her eyes and saw that Harry had a little smirk around her breast. Normally, she would try to wipe it off, even if playfully, but this time she couldn't—he'd earned it.

_Only had sex once my ass_, she thought.

Grabbing his head forcefully, she pulled his head to her other breast. It was feeling left out. And she could barely handle any more stimulation on the other.

She decided to just laid back and enjoy it. Harry was in a dominating mood and she was reaping all the benefits. She was sure there was a wet spot on both her shorts from how we she was, and his pants from her trying to grind up at him. It wasn't very elegant, the writhing she was doing, but he seemed to enjoy it as well. The bulge she kept trying to grind on seemed to enjoy it at least.

Even though it felt intense—almost too intense—while he made sure to lavish the same amount of attention on both sides, she made sure to not stop the grinding of her hips against his and starting running her hands across his back.

He had started using his tongue to rapidly flick her nipple over and over. It was driving her freaking _insane_. Thought she felt like she would climax at any time, there was only one thing going through her mind.

She wanted _more_.

When she started to get slightly used to the assault she could finally concentrate on more than the ecstasy on her chest, so her hands got more insistent on his clothes. His hands got more insistent in batting hers away. She didn't know how he could do so many things at once, either, because she was having trouble remembering_ where she was_, and Harry was using his hands and his mouth and his _tongue_... oh that tongue.

All she knew was that she was completely topless(when did that happen?), Harry was on top of her, and he was between her legs. Now if only she could take the _rest of their clothes off._

Clarity was coming back to her though, and with that she could plan on how to pay him back. Then her mind came mostly back when Harry slowed down a little. Her eyes shot to him though, when she felt his tongue—oh, she would marry that tongue if she could—lick lower down her stomach.

He was looking up at her while he did it, deliberately not blinking unless it was at a particularly tasty looking lick, and she didn't dare blink to miss a second. Every lap of his tongue made her chest heave a little more.

She used both hands to pull at her breasts and tried to make a sexy sound for him. Turning him on more was only an extra benefit that came out of it; she could feel his licks become just a little rougher every time she did it. No, the real reason was to pull her breasts out of the way so that she could better see him.

When he started moving down, her legs had unwrapped from around him and they automatically spread for him.

Yeah, he practically owned her. And she _liked_ it.

Ten seconds before that, there wasn't an inch of her that was unmoving. Every part of her had been writhing in some way. Now though, she wasn't moving a single muscle. She had even slowed her breathing as much as she could.

It felt like she didn't want to scare him away. She felt like if she moved even the tiniest bit, this would all stop and if that happened she would have to _kill_ something.

She felt like she would anyways. He was being _excruciatingly _slow. He was definitely taking his sweet time, even though she knew he was just as impatient, since she had felt the throbbing bulge against her hip.

Every lick seemed to gain cover less and less distance.

Slowly, he licked the bottom of her breast, kissed at the top of her stomach, stuck his tongue in her bellybutton, nibbled right above her waist... it was like the most pleasurable torture ever. Each little lick made her switch between wanting to kill him and wanting to beg him for more.

Maybe that's what he wanted. He seemed like he was in an especially sadist mood today, so maybe he just wanted her to beg.

She would.

All that came out of her mouth was a strangled, "_Please_." She couldn't even make complete sentences.

And _finally_, his mouth reached the waistline of her shorts. And she was sure things would speed up a little and she could finally _explode_. She watched in anticipation as he took his hands off her ass—she had barely been able to tell they were on there, with how concentrated she was on his mouth—and grabbed the elastic part of it. She licked her lips.

Then he flipped it, exposing about a half inch, and he kissed the newly exposed strip of skin. She bugged her eyes at him. He smirked, and did it again.

_Ugh_.

She wanted to scream. The only reason she didn't was because she knew it would just make him torture her even more.

Still, she couldn't keep it all in. Instead of throwing a fit she closed her eyes in frustration. It was like he found new ways to make it slower and slower. At this rate he was going to-

And then she felt it.

A second after she had closed her eyes, he had vanished the rest of her clothes and quickly shoved his whole tongue inside her.

His hands were on her ass again, pulling her cheeks downwards towards his face. His face was completely pressed against her and it was such a sudden assault that she couldn't control her reaction.

Her hips involuntarily had a big spasm, making her hit Harry in the face fairly hard. His whole face had to be wet from that.

To his credit, he didn't even pause in what he was doing. He just grabbed her hips firmly and _slammed_ them back down—if she could've thought at all, she would've found it _beyond_ hot. Her body wanted to thrash around, since she couldn't move the point where the overload was happening, but she tried to keep the thrashing to a minimum. She contented herself with grabbing Harry's head and trying to push it as close to her as she could.

She managed a peek down at him.

He was glaring at her a little. His face said, _let me do my job here._

So Leah reluctantly took her hands off and clawed at the sheets, as if to ground herself somehow.

When she looked back down she was turned on by how erotic the sight seemed. Between her breasts, she could see her spread legs, slightly raised. And between them, she could see the top half of his head move in an exaggerated licking motion. Every few of those movements, his nose would peek out between her lips and it was all covered with her juices.

This was one of the few times the wolf in her and her human side agreed. They both wanted to lick it all of his face.

It was harder to keep her legs down, they really wanted to wrap themselves around his head. She tried to focus on something else other than the twitching little thing _licking_ _inside of her_.

She tried to focus on his hands. One of his arms was still firmly wrapped around her waist, keeping it down. That hand though, was the one that was softly caressing her side, especially in contrast to how strongly the arm was pushing down. The other hand was squeezing one of her ass cheeks. One of the fingers was very very close to touching a part of her she thought she'd never use sexually.

But right now, she'd do it. If he tried it, she wouldn't say no—to practically anything, it felt like—that's how amazing she felt. She ended up losing track of his hands too when Harry took his tongue out and started sucking. And then he started sucking a bit higher.

_And then a bit higher_...

Lights exploded behind her eyes, and all she could do was gasp to try to get air in her lungs, which suddenly felt very empty of any.

And she was so _close_. All she needed was just a little pu- she _screamed_. Harry had shoved in two fingers inside her at once and started flexing them.

She was done.

That was all she could take.

Every nerve ending on her whole body seemed on fire.

She lost the battle against her body, and it started thrashing like it wanted to. Her back arched, her hands clawed at anything in reach... she went pretty crazy.

It took a while for her to come back down and even then, she wasn't completely sure what she had done while she was out of it.

When she could open her eyes, she was still breathing hard and the first thing she saw were her own heaving breasts. Then she saw through bleary eyes Harry's face on one of her breasts, smiling up at her. It might've had a touch bit of smugness on it, she wasn't sure.

Either way, only one thought hit her.

_More. _

She startled him a little, she was sure, but as soon as she thought she had control of her limbs again, she grabbed his face(it might've almost been something of a double slap, she wasn't in _complete_ control) and pulled his mouth to hers.

_Mmm_.

She could taste herself on him, but it just added to the general sexiness of it all and it turned her on even more.

She got the urge to tease him just as he had done to her. The best action would be for her to make him learn how _annoying_ it all was. Maybe drive him to the point of insanity like he had before she would give him the release(If she was honest, it had been worth it).

So she ripped all of his clothes off guided him inside her in about two seconds flat. One of his pant legs was still on his leg when she pulled him in, but she didn't care. She needed him _now_.

It was even better than she dreamed. And she had put a _very_ high bar on what it would be like. In fact, she had spent hours masturbating/fantasizing about this. It still didn't compare.

He felt big and heavy inside of her. It had hurt a little at first, but she didn't even pause and then her super healing made that go away in a few mere seconds.

She had been wet enough that it was very easy for her to pull him all the way in. Their hips met and besides the throbbing pleasure that started building inside her again, she felt an extremely powerful feeling of satisfaction. This was what she'd been wanting ever since her life really started.

This was where she wanted to be, as much as she possibly could. With Harry inside of her and their limbs wrapped around each other. He felt wonderful inside of her, and instead of the long moan she always thought she would make when this first happened all that came out was this very, very contented sigh.

All of her needy desperation left her and she was just left feeling satisfied and content and happy and fulfilled and a million other zen like feelings. As sexist as it would sound when she wasn't so happy(and wet) later, this was what she was made for.

It was perfect.

Although, about ninety percent of it was might have been the imprinting making it that good. It was fairly standard for someone who had only had sex once or twice like Harry. It lasted about five minutes, and they didn't try anything adventurous.

It was also the most beautiful thing she'd ever experienced.

When he first went in, he wrapped his arms tightly around her and then every part of him froze, including his expression. His face had been slightly pained, and she instinctively knew he was trying not to finish quickly. He mumbled something about "...so warm..."

Yeah, she guessed her body temperature wasn't making things any easier for him. She kept herself still, even though all she wanted to do was to grab his hips and slam their hips together over and over. The calm feeling helped her suppress the urge.

Instead, she grabbed his face and pushed it into her neck, where she felt him breathing her in, and felt him slowly start to relax. The urge to go savage on him passed, and she started to want something else.

She brought his face back to hers, and she kissed him as softly as she could. She made sure to look in his eyes afterward and say, with more feeling than she'd ever had before, "I love you, Harry."

He finally relaxed all the way, and pushed until their hips touched each other, making her gasp at the full feeling. "I love you," he finally, _finally_ told her.

That, combined with the most amazing feeling inside of her, made her eyes watery. She didn't cry, but it was a close thing. She'd been wanting both those things for so long, and finally getting them was almost too much for her.

She hugged him tightly, and this time it was her putting her face in his neck to calm down. When the emotions went back down, she kissed him on the cheek once.

It felt weird, kissing just his cheek when they were already naked and _fucking_. But it just made the warmth in her chest glow a little more. And they both started moving. It was slow and sweet and she had never been so happy.

Great long thrusts were driven into her, slow but deliberate. Every time, he almost slipped out of her, only for him to completely sheath himself in her, making her give little gasps whenever he did it especially hard.

They kept the same pace until she felt him start to gasp slightly. His thrusts started to get smaller and more erratic. His arms got a little tighter around her.

She tried her best to make it as good for him as possible, and that was ten times more satisfying for her than her own release was. She stroked his hair, massaging at his scalp and used her other hand to scratch lightly at his back. Her mouth trailed little kisses around his neck, whispering, "I love you," or just moaned his name every few kisses.

It almost felt like she was comforting him, but that made it even better in a weird way. The pleasure he gave her was intense and overwhelming and mind-blowing, but it was also short. Giving him pleasure and holding him lovingly while he experienced it... _that_ made her feel good in a lasting way.

When he gave a big great gasp and started emptying himself in her, she closed her eyes in pleasure and enjoyed the wet warmth she felt. She even tried maximizing his pleasure by squeezing around him in tandem with his throbs, moving her hips a little to give him more friction.

She could still feel him twitching inside her when he went limp and it gave her a rising warm feeling that she knew was going to stay there for a while.

It did. Long after he was done he kept breathing harshly on her neck, and the whole time she felt just amazing. Loved. So she kept petting him, and lightly pecking at him every minute or so, all in different places. Just little kisses to tell him she was still happy there. She kept doing that for about ten minutes, long after his breathing evened out, and it was such a beautiful ten minutes.

Then she decided to be awkward.

"So... what's up?" she asked him when the silence was getting to her.

Harry snorted and rolled off her, making her curse inwardly for ruining the moment, especially when she felt him slip out of her.

"What?" she asked him, half crossly.

He just snorted again and kissed her cheek.

She huffed.

In response, he tweaked one of her nipples. "Again?" he asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Her face immediately lit up.

She kissed him, and then looked down his body and saw that he was soft. "Want me to use my mouth?" she offered, gesturing down at him.

"No need," he said, waving his hand and making fully erect and larger if she saw right. He started to roll back on her, which she eagerly tried to rush by pulling at him, when he paused half way. "Why'd I say no?" He looked like he wanted to facepalm.

Leah snickered at him. "Too late," she said, pulling him in. She was already ready.

The second time it was completely different. By the time they had finished, the bed was broken, there were claw marks on the rug where she had ripped them, and she had long lost count of her orgasms. If she didn't heal so fast, she knew she wouldn't be able to walk.

Harry, as well, had finished more than once. He kept just waving his hand and continuing every time he couldn't hold it anymore.

In fact, it looked like he almost took it as a competition against her.

She didn't notice this until she was _exhausted_. Most of the time, she had been completely lost in her own mind, but toward the end her eyes had started to close by themselves and her legs just couldn't grip his hips anymore. She called quits.

"Harry," she whispered to him. He was holding her up against the wall, driving into her. "Harry, I can't... I c-can't take anymore," she stuttered, finding it hard to even talk.

Harry looked at her in relief and sighed out, "oh, thank Merlin."

Then he dropped her and flopped on the mattress, one of his legs hanging off. It took about three seconds for him to start snoring.

Leah just looked at him in surprise from the floor. She was too exhausted to be indignant about being dropped like that.

When she figured out what happened she snickered a little and affectionately flopped on top of him with all the elegance of a baby giraffe. She tried to kiss him before falling asleep, but ended up putting her open mouth on his shoulder and liking that too much.

She dozed off gnawing on it.

* * *

Harry woke up to a dog licking his face. He could remember when his aunt Petunia would open his cupboard before he woke up whenever his aunt Marge was staying over. Ripper, Marge's dog, would wake him up by trampling all over him and licking him until he wanted to throw up.

This time it didn't feel as disgusting, but he could recognize it by the distinct noises. It was a very rapid licking, much faster than any human could. Much more wet, too.

Scrambling a little, he held the dog's head away and wiped his eyes. When he opened them, he saw Leah's sleeping face licking the air.

There was something wrong with him.

There had to be.

It was the only explanation that he could find for why he found that _the most adorable thing in the history of ever_. He didn't' even stop her. Grinning, he held her like that and watched her as she tried to lick some imaginary thing.

Eventually, she must have felt how uncomfortably he was holding her, and woke up with a cute frown. "Harry?" she asked sleepily, rubbing at her eyes.

"Morning." He was still holding her face a foot in the air.

"Why are you holding me like that?" She didn't try to get out of it.

"You were licking me in the eyes," he smiled up at her.

She just closed her eyes again. "Oh. Can I go back to sleep?" she mumbled.

How could he resist that?

He let go and she nuzzled him, lazily throwing all her limbs around him in the process.

Then she sprang away, looking at him with wide eyes. "We were supposed to go to my mom's yesterday," she told him quickly and fearfully.

"Oh shit." Two pairs of wide eyes stared at each other.

They scrambled to get out of bed, slightly tripping over each other. When they were out of the sheets, they both stopped at the same time and stared at each other. Leah hadn't gotten to get a good look at him naked the night before. She hadn't allowed more than a six inch space between their bodies at any time.

_Mmmmmh._

Her mom could wait. Besides, they were already like twelve hours late, right?

"We're going to have to learn to stop sometime," Harry told her between hungry kisses.

She somehow made herself stop. Without his words, it would have been impossible. "You're not going to say that we should start now, are you?" she asked him, exaggerating her face into acting fearful.

"I wasn't... but now that it's out there, it's hard to ignore..." They both looked at each other and both sighed in equally pained resignation.

Leah looked away and to have less of a temptation. The next five minutes was a flurry of activity from her to get ready to leave. She had to shower, get dressed in something—her clothes were ruined, and she found a closet full of clothes with a signed note from Alice saying she made sure not to touch any of them—and trying to make herself presentable.

When she was satisfied, she left the bathroom to see that Harry hadn't moved from his spot and was looking at her in amusement. Before she could scold him(jump him) he waved his hand and was instantly clean, dressed and presentable.

Dickhead.

She pouted, but dropped it when he complimented how she looked. Then they were off.

* * *

Leah had forgotten how scary her mother could be.

There she stood, all five feet four inches of her seemingly towering over her, hands on her hips and a wooden spoon in one hand. Even if Sue was shorter than her, it didn't seem like it.

Leah felt like she was thirteen again and had locked Seth in a women's bathroom: immensely proud and desperately trying to hide it.

She feltbad about ditching the super-important-bonding-dinner. Really, she _did._ But having sex with her imprint was above all other priorities. Maybe even above his safety.

After all, what was the point of being safe if they can't enjoy that safety with lots of sex.

"So?" her mother asked, taking her hands off her hips and hitting her open palm with the spoon ominously. "What do you two have to yourselves?"

Harry looked startled to be scolded too, and she wanted to smirk at him. _Welcome to the family, you poor bastard._

She couldn't come up with anything, and Harry looked like he was too afraid to speak up. Their eyes met out of the corner of their eyes. Harry's were asking _should we run_, and she hoped she was saying, _I'll come up with something, but if not... yeah we should run._

It was unsurprisingly difficult saying all that with a side glance.

Seth saved them—sort of—when he came out to join them. "Hey guys! We were worried about you. What happened? Did you– oh." Seth had stopped speaking and twitched his nose. "_Oh_."

Then he took about three steps away.

"What happened?" Sue asked with concern. Then her eyes narrowed. "Were you two doing drugs? I thought I taught you better than that, Leah-"

"They reek of sex, Mom." He looked like he wanted to throw up.

Everyone promptly turned a ridiculously shade of red. Harry most of all, being the whitest there. Her mom dropped the spoon with a squawk and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. Seth just looked disgusted. There were lots of blushing and eyes not being met.

Except for Leah, that is.

In the middle of it all, Leah stood proudly, a wide proud smile on her face. Yes, she had ditched them for sex. And it had been _glorious_.

Also, she had so much practice embarrassing herself the last few months, that she had become almost immune to it. Especially when she was so thoroughly satisfied.

After that there was a lot of fidgeting and trying to move the conversation along. Her mom though, had apparently already built up quite a scolding and had to let out some of it.

"You could have at least called, or something," she shook a scolding finger at them both. "Also, couldn't you shower or something before coming?"

"I showered," Leah protested.

"I could still smell it," Seth frowned at her.

"Well we had sex for _hours,"_ Leah grinned proudly.

Her mom made a scandalized noise and bustled inside, probably to try and forget all this with cooking.

Seth frowned at Harry now. "I don't know if I should high five you or punch you," it sounded more like he was asking Harry what he should do.

"A fist bump, then?" Harry immediately answered.

Seth rolled his eyes, but did it. "Only because it was witty..." he mumbled.

In short order, they had explained all about them living very close by now.

Her family was of two minds about this. Both Sue and Seth protested about her officially moving out, even though she practically already had. They both wanted them to move in with them.

"At least until you're married, or at least engaged," her mother had protested.

Leah spit out her drink all over the table and frantically tried to shut up her mom. No marriage talk! No one was supposed to bring up marriage around Harry and pressure him.

He was supposed to spontaneously do ask her to marry him in a room full of rose petals after a night of love making. No marriage talk in front of him until then.

Her mom just huffed and got up with a little, "oh, grow up Leah." Then she announced she was going to the corner store to get more butter because the one on the table was ruined by Leah spraying all over it.

She took it with a petulant glare at Sue and pointedly buttered her bread.

Another eye-roll and her mom was off.

While Leah and Seth were inhaling the food—Harry had almost rivaled them, he_ had_ worked quite an appetite after all—Harry got up to refill his drink. As he walked by her, she made sure to swat his ass.

Seth made gagging noises at her.

She wasn't exactly bothered about it, just that... "How come _I_ didn't get a high five or anything?" she frowned at Seth.

Her brother looked quite perplexed by this. "Well, you're a girl..."

Oh, _hell_ no. She crossed her arms and glared at him until he saw his mistake and gulped. He might be a lot taller than her now, but she could still kick him in the balls.

"I'm the toughest person here," she declared.

Her brother snickered at Harry. "She called you the girl in the relationship."

"Psh," Harry scoffed. "I am the manliest man in all of the world. The man made world. The one run by men."

Leah grinned and taunted him, "you keep thinking that. So what are you cooking tonight?" Then to add to the insult, she flicked some mashed potato at his mouth. It was supposed to go in his mouth and be like she was feeding him, but it landed on his cheek when he moved instead.

Both siblings snickered and grinned at Harry.

His eyes narrowed.

A feeling of dread came over her when Harry slowly and deliberately pulled out his wand. He only brought it out when he meant business.

Just when Leah was getting ready to run, Harry slashed his wand and two shield walls came up. One next to Leah and one next to Seth. The wall was blocking their way behind them. The only way to get out of the little room was through the table and Harry.

Leah tried to push at the shield, but she already knew she wouldn't be able to. He had used his wand for a reason.

"Okay..." Seth asked with a confused face. "I don't know what that's supposed to..."

He trailed off when Harry got up and moved his wand up in a motion that looked like he was signaling them to get up. They didn't, but the food did. All of the food lifted and then started to revolve around Harry in a freaky way that reminded Leah a tornado. A food tornado.

Every once in a while, food would hit each other and some of it would go flying off and hit a wall with a loud splat. She was sure that it was done specifically for effect.

Now she got it. Even if they could dodge the speed that he could launch the food with, the shield was effectively keeping them from avoiding any.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Leah immediately begged, "Please, please don't hit me with that. I'm still really hungry and I don't want to shower again. You're the manliest man in the world and I wouldn't have imprinted on anyone less manly than that." She blabbered on and hoped he wouldn't do it anyways.

He did it anyways.

She was about to get on her knees and beg when she felt it all. It was slimy, warm and some of the chicken bones kinda hurt when they hit her.

She would get him back for this. She totally would.

While Leah stood there lamenting over the food being wasted, Harry set down his wand on the counter and walked over closer to them.

"I hope you learned your lesson that-"

He was cut off with a shriek from the doorway. "What _happened_!?" her mother yelled at the top of her lungs.

Leah looked around and saw that the room was covered in food. Harry had practically covered it.

She was about to point her finger at him and fuck the imprinting, she was going to clean that up, when Harry looked at her mom and nodded fervently. "I was _just_ talking to them about it," Leah could only look at him with an open jaw while he completely worked over her mom. "I hope you learned your lesson about food fighting." That was obviously _not_ what he was going to say. "Really," he shook his head at his mom in a disappointed fashion. "I was lucky to only get this." He then pointed to a dirty spot on his arm, which he must have done when no one was looking. Or maybe his tornado hit him once by mistake.

Her mom rounded up on both of them. "I can not _believe_ you two. We don't have the money to throw away like this," she stopped half way and put her head in her hands. "You two are cleaning this up. Now!" she snapped and threw a rag at each of them.

"B-but," Seth tried to protest, pointing at Harry.

"Don't you _dare_ try to blame it on Harry. I know he couldn't have done all _this_," she pointed around wildly, "in that short a time. You two are the ones with the freakish_ frustrating_ speed."

"He has magic!" Leah pointed accusingly. It made her feel childish.

Harry just shrugged. "I can't do magic without my wand, which I set on the counter before we ate." He then smiled charmingly at her mom, "Mrs. Weasley—who I think of as my mom since I lost mine—always told us no magic at the table, so she made us set our wands on the counter. It's a habit now," he shrugged with a fond smilewhich she knew was all bullshit _because everything coming out of his mouth right there was bullshit_. He totally just charmed her mom! That was just disturbing!

Leah could only glare at him. He had tried charming her, then using the pity card by bringing up that he had no mom, and then bringing up that he thought of a lady as his new mom, giving an incentive for Sue to try to fill that spot now.

It was completely low. All of it.

"Oh, you sweet thing," her mom sighed. "You go on and wash that off, I'll make them clean this up."

"Oh no, I couldn't," Harry protested, "I wanna help too."

"No, dear. You go on and get cleaned. I'll go get us some food." Her mom then patted his cheek and pushed him toward the stairs.

"Alright," Harry added, acting reluctant. Then to add to the insult, he summoned his wand with his hand walked off, throwing them a smirk.

She gave the stairs one last fond smile and put her angry face back on, catching Leah sticking her tongue out at the stairs. Of course she would. "You two! Clean this up and then shower. You're not getting any food."

Any protests were soundly ignored and then her mom bustled out to get more food.

Seth and Leah were stuck looking at each other in Dismay.

She briefly thought about turning wolf and just licking it all off, but she would end up putting claw marks all over the floors. That would be worse.

* * *

Leah ended up not cleaning a bit. First of all, she was going to make Seth do it either way, and even then Hermione had come over and took pity on them.

Also, apparently Ginny had come with Hermione and was waiting outside because they were together when Hermione _had to show them something right freaking now_.

Harry took one look at her fidgeting form and said, "Hey Seth, go entertain Ginny."

Seth frowned at Leah. "Can he order me like that?"

She nodded. "Of course, did you forget you're my bitch?"

"But I'm his bitch..."

"Yeah, but _I'm _his bitch. That puts you at the bottom of the bitch chain," Leah explained patiently.

"Seth is it?" Hermione cut in. He nodded. "Here's twenty dollars. Could you get me a spot of chocolate?"

Seth grumbled about being treated like a little kid, about he was definitely a teenager now, but he was still a broke teenager so he would do it.

"Here," Hermione took out a newspaper and put it in front of them. "You have to see this. I'm going to keep Ginny company."

They looked at each other when they were alone, until Leah made grabby hands for it and held it between them so they could read it together.

**HARRY POTTER'S POCAHONTAS**

**CLOSE FRIEND TELLS ALL OF HARRY POTTER'S MUGGLE GIRLFRIEND**

**It was a special coincidence that allowed this reporter to find out about Harry Potter's latest badly kept secret: the muggle he's now dating. **

**Many thought that Harry Potter was on just another mission when he went to the United States, and this _was_ true... until he met Leah Clearwater, the muggle that he now claims to be in love with. **

**Leah, as shown below, is a tall Native American girl that Harry met on his first day there. He and his then-partner, Draco Malfoy, had gone to meet the neighbors, when they met Leah, who was with about twelve of the local boys around her. That should've been fairly indicative from the start. **

**After that, she and Harry were never seen apart from each other. "They weren't even subtle about it," a neighbor said. "Even the first day that his girlfriend Ginny came over, Harry invited the girl."**

**Insulting, that's what that is. Especially from someone who is supposed to be the role model for our whole nation. Here is yet another celebrity who let their fame cloud their judgment.**

**If anyone had asked us a few months ago, we would have proudly told them that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were the shining example of a stable relationship. Now? Well, we'll let this photo paint its own picture. **

Leah looked at the picture, and had to stop herself from laughing. It probably wouldn't win her any favors.

There, in front of her house, was Ginny walking out slightly—but unmistakably—teary eyed. A second later, Leah herself walked out, hand in hand with Harry, and both looking just as happy as she always was with him.

It shouldn't be funny. It was invasive, it was rude, petty, and a whole bunch of immature things. But it was just too damn _funny_. She put her fist in her mouth, trying to stop the snort, and hoping it just looked like she was distressed.

She kept reading, trying to distract herself.

**Clearly, Mr. Potter has stopped caring about the people that used to matter. The people that _should_ matter. One might ask why this is, why would forgetting about an ex-girlfriend mean that? Well, it might not, but this does:**

Leah looked at another picture. This one of herself and Harry sitting on the couch at his house. It actually looked kind of sweet. She grimaced a bit at how she was staring at him a little starry eyed, but other than that, it was cute. In the picture, Leah's lips were moving slightly. It was probably no louder than a murmur. She tended to speak lowly when she wanted cuddles, it made him lean closer to listen.

After she said something, she smiled shyly, and Harry smiled back. He pulled out his wand, and the remote went flying at him. Before he caught it, she snatched it out of the air and stuck her tongue out at him. Then he playfully pretended to tackle her. The picture looped over and over.

She was slightly miffed about how it made it seem like they were going to kiss, because they didn't. She remembered that, and it was while he still had a girlfriend. Leah had _wanted_ the kisses, but she hadn't gotten them. She was still annoyed about that.

However, that didn't explain what the article was talking about.

**As you can see, Harry Potter has not only forgotten about all the people he used to hold dear, but the law itself. As an auror, he should already know the most famous and important law of our ministry. The Statute of Secrecy. It's not clear what exactly went through Mr. Potter's head when he decided to ignore the law, but a pretty girl is no excuse for putting our whole world at risk. **

**We at the Prophet, with the support of our readers, call for Mr. Potter to be brought to justice. Not even "war heroes" are exempt from the law. Thankfully, thanks to a concerned citizen, this was brought to our attention, so that the Wizengamot can't just sweep this under the carpet. **

Leah looked up at Harry with alarm. "They want to arrest you?!" she almost shouted at him.

He looked at her in surprise, as if _just_ reading that didn't tell him so. Sometimes his lack of survival instincts baffled her. "Yeah, but they can't," he shrugged flippantly.

"But what if they _can_?" she asked, wringing her hands. He made another_ I-got-this_ face. "How are you so sure?"

"'Cause," he crossed his arms in what was a seriously cute attempt at acting badass. "I'm Harry-fucking-Potter. They wouldn't dare try to arrest me."

She wasn't convinced.

"Also," he shrugged, "You can just break me out if that happens. You're pretty badass yourself."

That _was_ true... Fine, she'd stop worrying.

She looked out the window while she thought this and saw Ginny in tears running away with a newspaper in her hands. Next she saw her brother with some girl, probably hitting on her. He better be using condoms.

"I'll go there tomorrow and get it all sorted out," Harry reassured her and put his arm around her.

As she watched her brother act like a puppy dog with the girl, something incredibly important hit her. She couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed it before.

"I gotta pack my room!" she exclaimed, pulling Harry up the stairs.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry the updates are slower, I got really into Avatar and wrote some Zutara I'm posting soon. Plus, there were finals and all that, but that was just a minor thing.

Also, tell me how my first smut went.


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